God Eater Eyes of Insignis
by Ragner
Summary: My take of God Eater Burst, through the eyes of Insignis. As this story progresses, prepare for every spoiler in the story so SPOILER ALERT! OC X Licca. This fic is now a joint with h3AdS1aMM3r's Ash's Tale so read his story for his POV!
1. Prologue

Prologue

The year is 2071. Mankind is at the brink of extinction following a new threat that arose. Some call them Gods, some call them monsters, some call them, Aragami. This new threat appeared in the 2050's, discovery of Oracle Cells and their fast paced evolution has now decimated humanity's population. And despite of all this, humanity still fights, this is my story.

My name is Ragner Angel, codename Insignis. My physical details are not that important but I'll provide them anyway for those who want them:

Hair: Black

Eyes: Nobody knows, I have shades on all the time

Skin Colour: It doesn't matter

Clothing: Red top, Black bottom but it can change

Likes: My electronics (PSP, Ipod, etc)

Dislikes: Many many things too much to name

My life before joining Fenrir was pretty basic, scrounge for food, eat, sleep, play games or listen to music whiling the day away. I wanted to go out, go socialise, but in a world where you're likely to be eaten just for going to the beach or hang out with friends that might not make it to the next day was pretty pointless in my opinion.

One day when I was staring out the window into the Old City, a knock on my door jolted me out of my daydreaming reverie. It was an official from Fenrir. Apparently my DNA was a possible match to one of their "New-Type God Arcs". Having not much choice, and not much to pack, I was out of my makeshift home in minutes, knowing full well I'd never visit that humble old shack ever again. Walking through those double doors, changed my life forever.

"Sorry to have kept you waiting so long. Welcome to Humankind's last fortress. Fenrir. I will now test your compatibility as one of the anti aragami punitive force. The God Eaters." A voice said from behind the glass shield. With my shades on I could only make out three figures. Anything else, well... Was beyond my vision anyway.

"Please try to relax a little, you'll get... Better results that way."

Rolling my eyes, I took a few steps forward, not as if I'm going to have a panic attack right here right now.

"When you're ready, go stand in front of that case in the center of the room."

Stepping forward slowly, I noticed that the case in question had a giant longsword in it, along with an oversized bracelet, one half on the bottom near the sword, and the other half on the top half of the case. Shrugging my queasiness aside, I inserted my left hand into the machine (I'm a southpaw, deal with it).

"That's the... Wrong hand..." The voice continued as the machine slammed down, trapping my left arm anyway. What happened next, was a mixture of intense pain, weird squelching noises and the feeling of being jabbed by hundred's of needles. Before I could scream, it was over. The machine opened up with a mechanical hiss and I found myself the proud new owner of the worst fashion accessory in the history of fashion accessories... along with a giant cool longsword.

Picking up the longsword with a dagger grip, I swung it around, testing the weight.

"Huh? This thing weighs less than a kilo..."

Without warning, a small tendril came out of the longsword and attached itself to my bracelet!

"Okay..." I muttered, staring at the tendril, wondering if it was normal for giant weapons to attach themselves to their owners with creepy black tendrils.

"Congratulations, you are now the first of the Far East Branch's New-Type God Eaters. This concludes the aptitude test. Now that we know you're a match, you'll be going for a medical checkup next. Now then, I'd like you to wait in the room beyond that door, don't hesitate to know someone know right away if you start to feel... Unwell. I've high hopes for you."

I just met this guy and he has hopes for me already? This world is screwed.

Placing the longsword back into the machine, I headed for the only door left open in the room out back into the room I first arrived in when I entered "Human kind's last fortress". I guess this was the lobby. Taking a seat next to a guy dressed in bright orange and yellow, I took little notice of his clothing, his yellow beanie and orange hair were also major visual focal points as well, with colours that bright, it's more of a liability. Everyone knows bright colours attract attention, and attention from Aragami is the last thing you want.

"Hey... you want some gum?" The boy asked, tapping his pocket.

Before I could refuse his offer, he looked up with a mildly disappointed look on his face, "Oh, I'm all out, looks like I ate the last piece, sorry."

Well that saves me some trouble. Last time I was offered gum, the guy who offered it didn't even take it out from a wrapper. Major gross.

"I am Kota Fujiki, so, you were a match too?"

Well duh, if I wasn't a match then what would I be here for? Floor cleaning? There's a janitor like 5 metres behind you.

"That makes two of us," he said grinning, "You must be my age, or maybe a little older. Oh well, I'm still your senior by a nanosecond, nice to meet you."

"Ragner. Likewise." I replied before turning to a woman clad in white coming over to us like she had a bone to pick. Suffice to say, what she was wearing was definitely not for combat... Too much cleavage... Quite a lot of leg exposure... Can't imagine her fighting in that... And her armlet, was taped up with some yellow tape.

"Stand up." She ordered

Both of us were kinda stunned by this command, me I was still noting observations and Kota even tilting his head to the side to give a "Huh?"

"I said stand up! On your feet!" She said a little louder.

"Yes ma'am!" Kota cried, standing up immediately, puffing his chest out while I just stood at attention.

"I'm on a tight schedule so I'll be keeping this short, my name is Tsubaki Amamiya, and I'm your advisor. This is your schedule, after your medical checkup, you'll complete a full cirriculum of basic physical training, basic combat training, as well as weaponry and armor clinic. We are the one's who have been protecting you up until now, but from this day forward, you'll be doing the protecting. If you don't want to die over something stupid, you'll answer my every order with a yes. Understood?"

Long lecture, I only caught about half of it, the part where I had some training, a clinic and something about dying.

"Answer me!" She barked, clearly this woman has issues with waiting for replies.

"Yes ma'am." Kota and I said together.

"Alright, let's begin the medical checkups. We'll start with you." She said nodding at me.

Me! Why me? Pick the senior!

"Report to Doctor Paylor Sakaki's room by 1500 hours."

I don't have much of a choice in this do I?

"Take a tour of the facilities until then, this is your new home, the Fenrir Far East Branch aka the Den. Make sure you pay your respects to the members of your team."

As she walked off, I headed for the girl behind the counter, I hope she knew directions.

"Excuse me, where's the cafeteria?"

Yes, I'm hungry. So a cafeteria would definitely be my first stop.

"Ummm, up the stairs, take the elevator down." She replied

Walking to the elevator, I noticed Kota was still standing in his exaggerated version of standing at attention.

"Hey Kota, she's gone now you can stop standing like that."

"Oh, sorry I wasn't looking at her eheheh."

"Yeah, right, I saw you staring at her ass like 10 seconds ago."

"No I wasn't!"

"How would you rate it?"

"A solid 9... Oh crap." Kota facepalmed, realising he just admitted to ogling.

"C'mon, lets head to the cafeteria before the checkups. That food ain't gonna eat itself."

That's it for the Prologue! Chapter 1 will follow once I get a few reviews so R&R!


	2. Tutorials

Author: So... What's next?

Insignis: Tutorials?

Author: Screw that they're boring

Insignis: You want me to go in without knowing ANYTHING?

Author: That's the plan. =3

Insignis: Screw you

Chapter 1 Tutorials

Waiting at an elevator started to turn into the longest wait of my life as seconds turned to minutes and before long we had been waiting 15 minutes for the lift until a hand tapped me on the shoulder, "Uhhh you do know the lift is down for maintenance today right?"

"Oh really? Damn! How do we go down to the cafeteria then?"

"The stairs are over there." the God Eater said pointing in the direction of the stairwell before nodding and walking off.

"Well that explains the inactive lift... I guess it would really kill then to put up a sign..." I mumbled angrily

As if to illustrate my point, a girl in her teens wearing a grey tank top, baggy pants and goggles on her forehead walked up to the lift and pasted a "Do Not Use" sign.

Thank you for wasting my time...

After what was an uneventful lunch with huge corn, Kota's crazy antics and a few laughs (and sore gums) later, I headed up the stairs to Doctor Sakaki's laboratory.

Knocking on the door twice, it slid open to reveal two men waiting for me, one with a white Fenrir overcoat that looked pretty expensive, the other wore a brown robe with what looks like a self-sewn robe underneath.

"Oh, you got here 726 seconds sooner than I expected. Good to see you new type!"

Glancing down at my watch I noticed I had walked in at 14:48 why does this man insist in using seconds...

"I'm Paylor Sakaki, and I'm in charge of the technology R&D. We'll be seeing a lot more of each other. Welcome aboard."

"Now then, as you can see, I'm still pretty busy getting prepared. Johannes why don't you get your stuff done first?"

As soon as he said that, after the introduction I automatically phased out. Why is this man repeating the briefing received when I first got here? I know it's good and all in case I forgot anything, but the way he puts it is a real cure for insomnia. A few important facts about Johannes were all I remembered before he walked out, leaving me at the mercy of the doctor.

"Alright, we're good to go now. Just lie on that bed over there. You'll feel a little sleepy but there's nothing to worry about. When you wake up, you'll be in your own room. Just a little cat nap so to speak, right about 10800 seconds. Sweet dreams!"

Geez, just say 3 hours like normal people will ya?

-3 hours later, 180 minutes later or Paylor's 10800 seconds later-

Waking up in my own room as the doctor said, I quickly did I quick check on myself, make sure nothing's been altered or missing, as everything checked out, I went down for the tutorials and was mildly surprised to be out by the evening in time to sleep to the next day for my first mission.

I wasn't given much information on who I'll be going with, (I blame Tsubaki for that) all she told me is that the guy I was going with would know who I am and that he stood out in a crowd.

Watching a man in his 20's walk down, as he passed Hibari, she hailed him, "Oh, Lindow, the director said if I saw you, to tell you to come see him."

"Ok, don't tell him you saw me." came the quick reply

Man I gotta try that out another time...

"Hey there rookie!" Lindow said, walking up to me.

"Ragner." I replied shaking his offered hand.

"The name's Lindow Amamiya, on paper I'm your superior officer. But don't mind all that boring stuff ok? All I'm asking, is that you become someone who'll have my back ok?"

Amamiya? This guy's related to Tsubaki? Where's the stick up his ass? I can't see it. Are these two seriously siblings?

"Yes sir."

"Please, don't "sir" me, it makes me feel uncomfortable"

"Understood sir."

At that exact moment, a lady in that looked slightly younger than Lindow walked by, her hair was cropped to her chinline, and she wore a dark tank-top with green straps that revealed her side and a sash that covered most of her left leg only

"Hey what's this? A rookie?" She asked Lindow, studying me like I was some kind of specimen.

"Yeah and I'm pounding him with all of our severe rules right now so take a hike Sakuya."

"Yes sir! Big Boss sir!"

Walking off after one last glance and a wave, Lindow and I were left alone again.

"So that's about it okay? I'm sending you into battle now, but I'll be accompanying you on this mission."

"So sir..."

"Please stop calling me that..."

"But Sakuya..."

"She's doing it to rib me ok? Just call me Lindow. Everyone does."

"Ok, Lindow, may I ask you a serious question?"

"Shoot."

Leaning in closer in case Sakuya was within earshot I whispered, "Are you well acquainted with any girl below size D?"

Temporarily stunned by the question, Lindow managed to laugh, "Of course I am! What makes you ask anyway?"

"Tsubaki... Sakuya.."

"Hibari over there isn't a D."

"But you don't know her that well"

"Excuse me! They're not that small! Hibari yelled from the counter, apparently overhearing the whole conversation.

"Hey look at the time! We're gonna head out guys!

Taking me out the den entrance, we grabbed our God Arcs on the way to the main door, Lindow armed with a Longsword and me with a Shortsword I had placed on my God Arc after yesterday's tutorial.

Following him out, he took me to a setting I was all too familiar with, the old city... Too many days I've spent staring out into these empty buildings devoid of life.

"Boy, this place has seen better times huh? Right we're gonna start the simulation now, you've got three orders:

1. Don't die

2. If your number's up, get out

3. Hide

4. If you're lucky, catch the enemy off guard and blast it

Wait... Was that four?

5. Bottom line is you have to survive. Do that and everything will be fine..."

This guy needs to take math refresher courses. I hope he doesn't count Aragami like this, I'll have to do all the counting myself.

Hopping off the ledge I ran to a nearby wall. Crouching down, I placed my hand on the ground trying to sense the vibrations caused by the Ogretail that we were supposed to be hunting.

"Hey rookie, don't waste your time with that, focus on your surroundings or you'll be dead before you know it."

"Right"

Turning the corner, we spotted our quarry. The Ogretail was treading along the alley, not heading in any specific direction.

"Let's go." I whispered to Lindow, flanking it by the left while he took the right. As the sound of his footsteps drew it's attention, I leaped into the air, Short sword held in my favourite dagger grip. Bringing it down, the sword cleaved through its mid-flank in a large arc as I landed. Taking another step to balance myself, I swung the sword back, taking a huge chunk out of its tail.

"Nice swing, most rookies freeze when they see their first Aragami."

"I had plenty if practice in the tutorial simulations."

"I heard about that, you spent the whole night in there."

"Just trying to find the weapons that suited my style."

Dodging sideways with a step to avoid the spikes the Ogretail shot at me, I was caught off guard as the Ogretail used its tail as a springboard and leaped right at me!

"Rookie!" Lindow yelled in warning, but it was too late. Right after using a step it was physically impossible to bring up my shield in time.

Taking the full weight if the Ogretail on a partially opened shield, I was sent sprawling back, winded.

"It's coming in for a second hit!" Lindow yelled out, already running towards me at top speed.

"Don't..." I panted, trying to get my breath back

Leaping on its tail again, the Ogretail sprang towards me again to press it's advantage!

"Don't screw with me!" I yelled, leaping forward, I swung my blade in an uppercut while twisting my body to add momentum, catching it right in the face!

Yes! That felt good!

Trying to get back on it's feet again, the Ogretail started to wobble and fall.

Jumping into the air, I pointed my blade downwards in at an angle and shot forward, stabbing the Ogretail right in the body causing it to roar as it died.

"Quick! Extract the core!"

Pointing my blade at the Ogretail, I released the catch near the handle causing a mouth to erupt over my blade and take a large bite out of the Ogretail before retracting, the yellow oracle marker glowing to signal a successful devour.

"Nice... You got it. Any spare materials you get can be used to upgrade your God Arc. Well that's all for today, we're gonna head back now."

And that's it for chapter 1! I'll be working on Chapter 2 now so R&R! I need them to upgrade my God Arc!

Knife - Knife II

Brittle Titanium 2/2

Reviews 1/3

Cost: 130 fc


	3. Meet the team

Author: So how was the first mission with Lindow?

Insignis: It was nice

Author: Ready for your next mission with Sakuya? It's after the lecture

Insignis: Awesome, what are we killing?

Author: Cocoon Maidens

Insignis: Sounds tough, I'll go read up.

Author: That's nice... Hey that's not the Cocoon Maiden file! That's Sakuya's personnel record!

Author's Note: This fic will be a joint with God Eater Burst Ash's Adventures so prepare for a double protagonist story!

Chapter 2 Meet the team

"What do you think an Aragami is?" Doctor Paylor asked as soon as I sat down in his laboratory.

Answering his own question, he continued, "The nemesis of humankind, an absolute predator, destroyer of the world! Well, that about sums it up"

Short, sweet. Nice lecture. Can I go now...?

"Now then, these aren't misconceptions..."

Guess not.

"Rather, you could simply say one has his eyes fixed on the phenomena before him."

Glancing to the side, by the glazed look of cluelessness in Kota's eyes, I was guessing that he not only did not understand the last statement, but had started to daydream.

"Okay, I have a question,"

Yeah! An interactive lecture! This should keep me awake!

"Have you ever wondered how and why the Aragami came into being?"

Pointless question... They came, they saw, they ate. Case closed.

"As you probably know, the Aragami appeared out of nowhere one day, since then their numbers exploded! Yep, as if they were ripping right through every evolutionary process."

As expected of Kota, he took a not so subtle yawn at this point, with an even less subtler stretch, "Hey listen, does this lecture have a point? I mean, what do we care about the reason for the Aragami existence?" Kota said, looking at me

Trying and failing to point out the warning signs of a certain somebody standing right behind Kota, Doctor Paylor took that cue to speak, right behind him.

"You sure about that?" he asked, stunning Kota who swung a 180 to face him.

"An Aragami has no brain. Neither does it have a heart, nor even spinal fluid. We frail humans will perish if we get blasted in the head, or the chest. But that's not enough to bring down an Aragami."

I think I figured out the part that blasting an Aragami in the head or chest won't work after we failed at nuking them. (See God Eater Prequel Anime to see how much they really failed)

"An Aragami is a cluster of Oracle Cells, each of them a single-cell organism that thinks and preys on others. That's right, an Aragami in itself is a colony of thousands, make that hundreds of thousands, of life-forms. And this powerful, graceful fusion of cells can't be destroyed by conventional weapons – not the ones we have anyway."

See above note about nuking Aragami.

"... So how on Earth are you people supposed to battle these Aragami?"

"Um, let's see... Just keep slashing and blasting them with our God Arcs?" Kota answered.

Not the answer I was looking for, but Kota had the basics down...

"Yes, the short answer is that using a, God Arc, a bio-weapon embedded with the same Oracle Cells, is the only way to stop the fusing of an Aragami's Oracle Cells. However, this can cause rogue cell colonies to re-fuse, and then form a new entity. The best thing to do, would be to extract the Aragami core, the cell colony serving as the command center. But this is extraordinarily difficult to do."

Well yeah, if it was easy, the Aragami's would not be around now would they?

"Even with a God Arc, we have no way to deal a decisive blow. Somewhere along the way, the people likened this absolute being to countless Gods that have been passed down around here, and they started to call it, "Aragami". All right, that's it for today's lecture. I'd like you to refer to the Norn Database in the terminal for more details about the Aragami. Understood?"

"Yes Doctor." I said nodding in his direction as I showed myself the door, with Kota tagging along behind me.

Heading back to the lobby, I saw Lindow standing near the counter and headed over to him.

"Hey rookie, I'm assigning you a mission with Sakuya so you can learn how to fight when accompanied by long range God Arc users. She and I are old frenemies but don't be too worried alright?"

"Sure thing, consider the mission done."

"Hey confidence is good rookie but be careful out there alright?" a voice behind me sounded out.

Turning around, I came face to face with a guy not much older than me, his hair was a deep shade of maroon with a black cap to cover it, and his sweater was bright green with blue shorts and sandles.

"Oh sorry if I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Shun Ogawa, I was supposed to tell you to meet Tsubaki but I guess I forgot. Anyway, there's no problem with confidence, just make sure it doesn't get you killed alright?"

"Right, thanks." I replied as Shun walked off, tapping another guy on the shoulder.

"Hey Tatsumi, Brendan said he couldn't make it for the mission so I'm taking his place. It's with Karel and Gina right?"

"Yeah Hibari, I came back alive today! So how about a date!... Huh? Oh yeah, it's with those two. We leave in a few minutes. As I was saying Hibari..."

"Man, that guy must be really attracted to Hibari, blowing off a friend just like that..." I muttered to nobody in particular.

"That he is. I myself am tired of his flirting with Hibari, it wastes so much time! And money." Another boy not older than Shun or me said, sighing as he walked over. "Honestly, I can't fathom how he even became a unit leader."

"And you are?" I asked, taking a note of this guy's attire, bright blonde hair, bring pink shirt and jeans. I swear, from the waist above, everything about this guy was bright.

"Oh have I not introduced myself? I'm Karel Schneider, sniper in Tatsumi's unit. I do everything... For a price of course."

I do everything for a price of course. You know how many wrong things can be associated with this statement?

"Yeah, I can see that..." I muttered, noting the enormous price tag on his definitely designer clothing.

"And just what is that supposed to mean?"

"Money ain't everything you know, especially in a world that's gone to hell for more than 20 years."

"Excuse me! Just because you're a pauper doesn't mean you have to mock the value of money!"

"Yeah yeah whatever, if you don't mind I have a mission to go on." I said, brushing past him, pushing him out of the way slightly as I made my way to Hibari and Tatsumi.

"So as I was saying Hibari..."

Attracting girl tip number 1. Let the girl talk for a while. Chatting her ears off isn't exactly endearing.

"Excuse me Hibari, Lindow has a mission for me?"

"Hey, I'm talking to... Are you a new rookie?" Tatsumi asked, finally snapping out of his "I must not stop talking to Hibari" reverie

"Yep, My name's Ragner."

"Tatsumi O'Mori. I'm having a conversation with Hibari right now, do you mind..."

"Sorry to interrupt your one sided chat, but there's a line of people waiting for their missions." I said, pointing at the long queue behind me.

"Oh! Well, sorry about that..."

"No problem, I'm guessing that's your party over there waiting for you?" I said smugly, pointing at Shun, Gina and Karel, Karel getting madder by the minute as he tapped his foot impatiently.

"Crap! Right! I'll talk to you later Hibari!" Tatsumi said as he rushed off.

"Sorry to send him off, I'm sure he'll be back after his mission" I said, turning to Hibari.

"No problems at all." She said with a smile, "You are now registered for your mission with Sakuya, she's already waiting at the den gate for you so please meet her when you're done getting ready."

Heading to the den gate after stocking up on recovery pills, I headed out with Sakuya to a gloomy residential area, a huge tornado-like spiral in the center of several buildings that didn't appear to be wind.

Man, this place looks so dark and depressing.

Walking to her side on one of the roofs, she looked at me, "Oh, you're that new recruit I met earlier."

"Yeah, my name's Ragner."

"Mine's Sakuya Tachibana, nice to meet you! Are you nervous?" She asked casually as she tapped my back.

"Not really, I've been through the briefing, read up on what we're fighting, now it's all about putting what I've learned into practice."

"Good, try to relax, or you'll find yourself freezing up and crucial times."

Taking a deep breath, I focused less on dinner and more on the task at hand. It must have worked as she immediately started her briefing... Or maybe it was the roar from afar.

Yep, judging by the way she's looking out, it's GOTTA be that roar.

"During this mission, you're going to take the lead. I'll be backing you up from the rear. This is basic strategy for teaming up with a God Eater with a long-range God Arc, so don't forget it. And don't get too far ahead, always stay within firing range of your backup. Got it?"

"Yep." I said, pulling the trigger on the grip, causing my God Arc to morph as the blade retracted and a cannon took its place with the barrel extending outward once the change was complete.

"All right, let's begin." She said, swiftly hopping off the ledge, with me following suit.

Finding the Cocoon Maidens wasn't exactly difficult, they were stationary. Taking aim, I fired off a few fire lasers at it to get its attention.

"Careful with your shots, they drain Oracle Points, you need Oracle Points to power your bullets so if you fire too much you'll run out quickly. Oracle Points can be replenished by either physically attacking Aragami or eating Oracle pills."

"Got that!" I yelled, closing in on the Cocoon Maiden and flipping the catch causing the mouth to erupt and take a large bite out of the Cocoon Maiden's side.

As soon as the mouth retracted, I felt a sudden surge of energy flowing into me!

"Restrictions released! God Arc unleashed!" I yelled, holding my sword properly for once, just in time to be hit in a face by one of the lasers shot by the Cocoon Maidens.

"Being in Burst Mode doesn't make you invincible." Sakuya warned as she took a shot at the offending Cocoon Maiden.

Dashing forward, rolling to avoid an overhead laser, I hacked and slashed through the Cocoon Maiden, my speed and strength augmented by the temporary boost in power. As the first Cocoon Maiden died with a prolonged howl, I started stepping towards the next Cocoon Maiden when my Burst Mode ran out.

"Alright then! Plan B!" Switching to my gun mode, I did some quick math in my head before launching a hellfire mortar 30 degrees into the air to land right smack in the Cocoon Maiden's face!

"Not bad!"

"Thanks!"

Rushing in again, the Cocoon Maiden grew upward opening its midsection!

"Watch it! It has a needle attack!" Sakuya shouted in warning.

Needle attacks? Details would be nice. Does it shoot them or does it use them?

Dropping from a run to a diving slide, I dived just in time to avoid the needles that jabbed out above my face, taking a slash out of the Cocoon Maiden for good measure.

Alternating between my dagger grip and sword grip, I started cutting the Cocoon Maiden's body non-stop, dodging left and right to keep myself behind it. Taking a quick step back, I flipped the catch once again to send my God Arc into Predator Mode, biting the Cocoon Maiden's head ripping out the core as it died.

"Well, that wraps up today's mission." Sakuya said happily, patting my back as she slung her giant God Arc rifle over her shoulder.

Returning to the den with plans to have a little lunch before my next mission, I ran into Kota who was in the middle of watching a heated argument between Shun and Tatsumi.

"You told me it was Karel, and Gina! You didn't say you were bringing THIS calamity along!" Shun yelled at Tatsumi, pointing an accusing finger at a cowering Kanon.

"Look, I'm sorry that she misfired at you, but she did Link-Aid you after that. So what's the problem?"

"The problem is she shot a (censored) bullet at me while I was in the middle of blocking! That damn Kongou had a free hit!"

"What's a Kongou?" I whispered to Kota.

"Some Aragami that looks like a gorilla." He replied quickly, still trying to keep his eyes on the action.

"She already apologised profusely for that. She was trying to fire at the Kongou and accidentally hit you. There is no reason to overreact."

"Overreact? She was point blank! The only way you miss point blank shots is if you're (censored) blind!"

"What's going on here?" Tsubaki yelled from the lift, it finally being fixed.

"Nothing Tsubaki, just a little disagreement between comrades." Tatsumi said smiling sheepishly.

"Didn't sound like that from the lift. Try to keep your team under better control in the future." Tsubaki said before disappearing to another floor.

Ouch, man did Tatsumi just get a tongue lashing.

As the crowd dispersed, Kota and I headed to the only one who didn't leave with the rest, a girl in her teens with light pink hair and a green dress, the cause of the whole fight.

"Hey, Kanon was it?" Kota said, bending down to look up at her eyes that were staring holes in the floor.

"Y-Yes?" She said, looking up and jumping.

"Easy, easy, listen, it's not your fault alright? Everybody makes mistakes."

"It was my fault! I accidentally hit Shun with the bullet and he got incapacitated!"

"C'mon relax, just try not to hit people in the future and keep your chin up. If you don't, you'll never get better."

"T-thanks..." Looking at Kota and smiling before running off.

"Hey did you see what I just did there? Aren't I awesome?"

"Comforting a girl who doesn't need comforting... Good job." I said, patting him on the back as I headed to the lift.

"Hey! You don't know how hard it is to wield a gun and not hit your teammates! It requires precision..."

"I'm a New-Type remember?"

"Oh yeah, you have to use both... I forgot..."

Yep, easy to forget seeing as I'm supposed to be the ONLY New-Type around here...

"C'mon, let's go." I said as the lift finally arrived.

Stepping into the life the first time since I arrived at the den, I realised I had actually never been in a lift my entire life, since my entire life was spent in an Aragami infested age. Now that I think about it, I wanna have a little fun here.

Taking the lift down to the cafeteria, I let Kota walk out first, "Oh dam Kota! I left my Fenrir card upstairs! I can't eat without it! You go ahead, I'll catch up to you later ok?"

"Sure thing man." Kota said as he waved goodbye.

Yes! As soon as the lift doors closed, I started studying the control board in more detail. There were a lot of buttons on it, each one had a name. Since I had a lot of time on my hands, I decided that pressing all of them would be the fun thing to do. Going up floor by floor, I was amazed at how the lift would vibrate a bit and open its doors to a totally different floor! Hitting the top floor, I was slightly taken aback when Doctor Paylor got into the lift with me.

"I see you're enjoying the facilities." Paylor said, looking at me with his usual closed eyed glance.

"I-I have no idea what you're talking about Doctor."

"Forgot your Fenrir card huh? You entered the den using it, there's no way it's not on you."

"Wait, how do you..."

"My room has a separate security system. It just so happened that I observed your entry into the den and your little conversation down at the cafeteria. Is this your first time in a lift?"

Sighing as I was defeated by the spying doctor, I looked him in the eye (well the eyelids), "Yes Doctor, I've never been in a lift before."

"Fascinating! Well, carry on." he said happily as he got off at the laboratory floor.

Having a quick lunch with Kota, I quickly headed off back to the lobby since I had about 10 minutes to spare before I was supposed to have my mission with some guy named Soma.

Reaching the mission counter a few minutes beforehand, Hibari quickly beckoned me over.

"Yea Hibari? What's the matter? Soma's being delayed?"

"No! He's headed out without you! He's at the sunken grid!"

Yeah, leave without the rookie, classic. This isn't a date with a hot chick!

"Damnit!"

Rushing out the entrance, I quickly grabbed my God Arc from the storage area. Saying a quick thanks and goodbye to Licca, I quickly made my way to the Sunken Grid.

Panting slightly as I finally arrived via one of the drainage tunnels, I saw Soma and a guy fighting Cocoon maidens.

"Man, Soma, you gotta learn a bit of patience or something!" I yelled, leaping out of the drainage pipe to join them.

"That's not of my business" The guy in the blue hoodie snapped, I assume this guy is Soma.

"That's right rookie, our schedules don't bend themselves around yours just because you're a New-Type."

"Who're you?" I asked, staring at the boy accompanying Soma.

"Why do you need to know?" He snapped back, obviously disliking me for some reason.

"His name's Tom. Not that you need to know it." Soma muttered, taking another swing at the Cocoon Maiden.

"Hey Soma, why are you giving my name out like that it's so..."

"Tom! Watch out behind you!" I yelled, as the Cocoon Maiden extended upwards for what I knew was going to be a needle attack.

"Wha...?"

Before Tom could react, the Cocoon Maiden shot spiny needles out from all around its midsection, hitting Tom right in the back.

Falling down in a pool of his own blood, I rushed to help him.

"Tom!"

"He's dead! Leave him unless you want to join him!" Soma snapped, attacking the Cocoon Maiden viciously.

Yeah just leave the guy to die why don't you?

Killing the Cocoon Maidens. I made a quick check of the surroundings. As soon as I was sure they were clear, I rushed over to Tom's body, trying to feel a pulse.

"It's no use. He was dead the moment it hit him. Let's go."

"But we can't leave him..."

"Listen rookie, people die in this damn job everyday. He isn't going to be the first, or last person that's gonna die in your face."

Swinging his buster sword down, he covered Tom's body while pointing it at my face.

"What kind of place did you think it was gonna be when you signed up?"

With no answer to that question, Soma pulled back his sword, "Just kidding, let's go, I can't sense the Ogretails around here anywhere, we'll report back first."

"Can we..."

"Whatever. Bring the dead guy if it pleases you, just so you know, I'm not carrying him."

Lifting Tom over my back, he was suprisingly light. Or maybe I'm just stronger now. Anyway, we head back the way I came back to the den.

Leaving our God Arcs in the storage area, Soma headed back to the lobby, while I carried Tom's body with me as we both went straight to the counter, the lobby thankfully empty except for another rookie a few years younger than me on the couch playing what looks like a PSP. The first thing I noticed was his cloud white hair, tied in a black bandana. Taking occasional glances so I don't get caught looking, his attire was not much different from mine, aside from his shirt being white and a white jacket to cover it.

"Yeah, this guy died during the mission and rookie hero here decided to bring him back"

"Well, we do have a furnace downstairs... You could cremate him there. It's just that, nobody's brought a dead comrade back before."

"Wha... who... holy shi-" The rookie yelled, apparently he noticed me and the load I was hefting on my shoulder.

Apparently he hasn't seen dead body before either.

"Uhhh, don't worry about this... He didn't feel anything."

The rookie was still freaked out as hell, but since he didn't say anything else, I quickly excused myself and took the lift down to the lower level furnace.

Leaving his body there, I took the lift back up to the Rookie level rooms to wash myself and freshen up when I saw Kota standing outside my room.

"Hey, I heard what happened. You feeling alright?"

"Yeah, a bit tired from the mission, why?"

"I heard it all from Kanon, who was told by Tatsumi who heard it from Shun, who said he got it from..."

"Ok ok, long gossip line down. What did you hear?"

"Is it true that a guy died with you on your mission with Soma?"

"Yeah, why?"

"And... You're ok with that?"

What is this guy getting at?

"Yeah, why?"

"A guy just died in front of you man! You should be freaking out! You should be horrified! You should be scared! You should be a lot of things that you're not right now! Why are you so calm man?"

"Maybe we should go into my room..."

Opening the room door with my Fenrir card, Kota and I sat on the couch near my kitchenette and we continued from outside the corridor.

"Well you see Kota... I've seen death before."

"Really? Who died? Your friends? Relatives?"

"My parents."

"To what?"

"We were on holiday. Before the Aragami threat had hit America. My parents took me out hunting. We all had hunting rifles and we were just taking shots at deer. Just when I finally got the hang of using the rifle, these... Well back then I called them monsters but now I know their Aragami. This pair of Zygotes swooped in and just... Devoured the deer we were going to shoot. And it seemed that the deer wasn't enough. It turned towards us and just started flying towards us, staring at us with that horrible huge eye..."

"You mean..."

"My parents told me to run, they started shooting at them. I told them I didn't want to run, I started trying to take aim. They killed my father and when I tried to shoot the Zygote that came after my mother, the shot went wide. I killed my parents Kota. I couldn't save them. I survived by the sheer miracle that another Aragami came and started fighting the Zygotes so I could run away in the confusion."

"I'm sorry man..."

"I stowed away on a ship to Japan. I didn't know where it was heading until it stopped. I crawled my way to the outer ghettos and registered under Fenrir. They gave me food, they gave me shelter. So I just lived there, with nothing to stop me nor anything to live for. Until I came here."

"I'm really sorry for your loss."

"Hey Kota."

"Yeah?"

"You know all those kids who dream about becoming superheroes and saving everyone?"

"Yeah, why."

"I think it's a load of crap."

"Huh? Why...?"

"They think superheroes can save everyone. They can't. Superheroes can't change what's already been done, they can only clean up the mess afterwards. Nobody, not even God can save everyone. And by God I don't mean the Aragami."

"That's... Really..."

"I'm sorry, don't mind what I said about the heroes. I'm sure you wanted to be a hero too..."

"No man, I can see where you're coming from it's just... You really should believe in people more man."

"We'll see... We got that mission tomorrow right?"

"Yeah, I guess I'll see you tomorrow then"

As Kota left the room, I couldn't help but feel that tomorrow's mission, was not going to be as routine as I thought.

End of Chapter 2

AND ITS DONE! MAN THAT TOOK A WHILE. And the rookie that I met in the lobby? Well, let's just say h3AdS1aMM3r and I are doing a little collaboration. Yep, that's right, we're merging our stories! Support it by reviewing!


	4. Ash Shikigami?

Author: So we meeting him. You nervous?

Insignis: Who?

Author: Your new buddy.

Insignis: You mean the PSP guy?

Author: Uh huh

Insignis: Nope, what's the worst thing that could happen?

Fighting over girls?

Author: I heard he's a lousy shot.

Insignis: Damn I hate friendly fire.

Chapter 3 Ash Shikigami?

Waking up early this morning, I had heard from Kota last night that Licca, the engineer who manages our God Arcs was not taking Tom and Eric's death so well. Planningto visit her after breakfast, I went down to the cafeteria to find it was nothing short of a ghost town, minus the tumbleweeds.

I guess nobody here gets up to eat at 07:42.

"What the hell man, just what time do these jackasses get up?"

"Which jackasses?" a girl's voice said behind me. Spinning around, I saw Licca walking out of the lift, already in her work clothes, taking her tray and other eating utensilsfrom the rack. Dam, she looks just as hot with or without the grease smudges.

Quickly looking away before she noticed I was staring, I quickly tried to strike a conversation, "Licca, you're up already?"

"Yeah I had to finish the work on Tom and Eric's God Arc."

"Huh? Who's Eric?"

"You don't know? He and Tom were killed yesterday... It's really tragic having two God Earers die on the same day..."

You mean someone aside from Tom died yesterday? Talk about unlucky.

"I-I'm sorry to hear that... It must be hard, taking care of a God Arc of somebody recently deceased..."

"There wasn't that much to do, their God Arcs were relatively unscathed, almost no damage and no sign of wear and tear. The silver lining is that they can just be used asis... But still... I'm sorry I don't feel so good..." she said, setting her tray down on an empty table.

"It's ok, don't dwell on it." I said, sitting opposite to her.

"What about you?"

"Huh? What do you mean..."

"Don't play dumb with me, I know you were with Tom. He died right in front of you. Aren't you scared?"

"Of what? God Eaters die everyday. Personally I think the hardest part was carrying him back."

"How can you be so cavalier about it? Someone just DIED in front of you! Aren't you in the least bit scared?"

"I... I'm used to having people die around me."

"How?"

"My parents died in front of me. I lived on the edge of the outer ghetto near the Anti-Aragami Armored Wall. And trust me, it's not as safe as you think."

"... You're lying."

I'm starting to get a little scared, this chick can read minds.

"What?" "Stop lying to me, and to yourself. If you're so used to it, why can't you sleep? Why are you up so early like me?"

"I had to prepare for my mission. I leave after breakfast."

"Yeah, in like 2-3 hours. Why don't you tell me what's really on your mind?"

"Well I was planning to meet you after breakfast..."

"Well here I am.

" "Talk to you about Tom's death..."

"We are..." "I dunno, I guess I like having an early breakfast."

"Without your two mission partners?"

"Huh? Two? I thought it was just Kota?"

"Ash too." Licca answered, taking a sip of soda.

"Who's Ash?"

"I don't know, I only handle God Arcs. And judging by the wear and tear, he came in about the same time as you."

Man it's totally cliche to have someone steal my thunder.

"Oh yeah, I just remembered, you handle bullet chips right?"

"Yes, why do you ask?"

"Do you mind looking into this bullet configuration I wrote up last night?" I asked, handing Licca a notepad with my bullet configuration in the form of a bullet pointed list.

"Hmmm. Shots 3 and 4 will clash but if you alter those shot directions by say a few degrees left or right it should work perfectly." said Licca, pulling out a pen and around her own added notes to the pad.

"Thanks a lot Licca! I owe you one!"

"Well if you don't mind waiting for me to finish, how do you feel about owing me one more?" she said with a sweet smile.

"What do you mean?" Finishing off her toast, Licca took me to the God Arc storage area.

"Quick, get your God Arc." Grabbing my God Arc once it had disengaged from the storage holding area, Licca led me through a door from the God Arc area that I've never seen before that led into a really dark room. Just what is she planning to do now that she has me with her in a dark room... With my God Arc?

Flicking a switch, I was temporarily blinded as lights on both sides lit up one by one to reveal that we were in a large hangar like room.

"Welcome to the bullet testing area." Licca said proudly.

"Wow... So people test their bullets in here?"

"Yep, come over here, and pass me your notepad." Handing it to her, she quickly flipped to the page of the bullet I was trying to make and started pulling chips out of drawers on a large nearby wall before heading back to the table.

"Do you want your bullet to be Blaze, Spark or Divine?"

"Spark. It's for a Kongou."

Carefully selecting the yellow coloured chips, I watched in awe as Licca assembled the bullet, fixing in each tip with a flourish and before I knew it, she was done.

"All right, load this and try firing it at that target over there." Licca said, pointing at a target down the range, "the damage your shot does will be recorded by that target upon impact."

Well, here goes nothing. Pulling the trigger, my God Arc fired out a shot with 3 tails spiraling around the initial shot as they all hit the target at the same time.

"Nice shot! That was beautiful!"

"All thanks to you."

"You already had the basic concept down. You just needed to perfect it. Good job rookie."

"Thanks, oh hey, I gotta run! My mission starts soon! See you around?"

"Sure." Feeling totally elated, I rushed to return my God Arc and met Kota in the lobby, but Ash was no where to be found!

"Uhhh, where's Ash?" I asked, looking around for the last member of the squad.

"If you're looking for a guy with a bandana with questionable sanity, he's passed out on the couch." A female God Eater said as she entered the lift.

Heading to the gathering area down the stairs, I noticed the guy in question taking a nap on the couch. The guy being the God Eater that freaked out over the dead body I was carrying yesterday.

Nudging him on the shoulder, "Hey, wake up, it's time to go already."

"OH MY GOD OH MY GOD WHERE'S MY PIZZA?" he screams, slamming his head into mine as he shot up.

Is this guy's head screwed on straight?

"Ow dammit, there's no pizza!" I yelled back, rubbing my nose.

Finally, after a long period of silence that was spent staring at each other, Ash looked at Kota who was happily watching the action unfold, "Who's this guy?" he asks, pointing at my face.

"It's Ragner, and stop pointing at my face." I reply, pushing his hand out of my face.

Honestly, how rude can this guy get?

"Well whatever you are, Ragna the not Bloodedge, Ash Shikigami at your not so widely used disposal."

This guy has insane or high written all over him.

"What Ragna the not Bloodedge? Have you been smoking something?"

"If you count eating monsters with a sword with a black mouth, while we get uber charged and get steroid reflexes smoking? Then yeah I've been smoking a shit load bro."

Don't tell me this douche actually takes devouring as smoking, maybe the steroids shrunk his brain... Along with his testicles.

"Do you have any pot on you, or maybe a little weed?"

"Weed? Wuzzat?"

I am going to shoot this guy. Through the head preferably.

"Drugs." You low grade moron.

Then again, this guy's probably nuts, he can't be on drugs if he doesn't even know what they are.

"Drugs, pots, WEED? Dude I'm a perfectly normal, sane to the core guy. Why would I need any if that?" he asked incredulously.

"It would definitely explain the behaviour."

Finally getting off the couch, Ash l, Kota and I walked to the den entrance until Kota stopped, "Hope we all survive this one huh?"

"That's a given, what's gotten into you?" I reply, looking at him.

"Well, I dunno what my mom and sister would do if something happened to me, so I gotta watch out."

"An image of a chick with huge boobs?" Ash said, in response to my question.

"Dude are boobs all you think about?" I asked, looking at Ash with disdain.

"Legs, boobs, hips, face. Come on! You're a guy aren't you?"

"They're not the main point of attraction for me, more like icing on the cake."

"Hey guys guys, you know Sakuya don't you?" Kota said gesturing to us with his hands, desperate to win back the attention.

"My woman man, I already told you before." Ash said, pointing at himself with a cheeky grin.

"What about her?" I asked, totally not seeing the point in the question or in Ash's answer.

"Is either one of you close? She's really pretty don't you think? Good looking, friendly, strong... Like an Amazon warrior! How hot is that?"

"As I said, she's my woma..." Ash started.

"Get to the point Kota." I muttered, losing interest in this conversation already.

"I'm getting all pumped up here! Let's see who can take out the most enemies in this mission!" Kota yelled, punching the air.

Thank God nobody's around to see this, especially Sakuya.

"That's it? I know who's gonna win already." Ash said, his grin still on.

"Dudes there's only like 4 Aragami. Nice competition." I said, pulling out my Ipod and plugging in the earphones.

"Oh come on! Don't be a stiff! If you don't watch it, I'll just take them all." Ash said, looking at me with a pouty face.

"Please, it'll make my job a lot easier."

"Well if you wanna be that way then whatever. Come on, men!"

Heading out to grab our God Arcs, just before I left, I could not resist giving Licca a friendly wave as I left earning a smile and a giggle as she waved back.

I think this is the start of something beautiful.

Area: Tranquil Temple

Standing on the ledge of one of the broken buildings, as it was just Kota and Ash and no senior from the 1st unit, I figured I might as well give then the briefing on this mission.

"Alright, here's the deal. Our mission is to take out a Kongou and 3 Ogretails. The Kongou is isn't anywhere in sight so let's wipe the Ogretails first before..."

"Wait who made you boss around here?" Ash interrupted, staring in my direction. I had half the mind to shoot him back with the exact same statement.

"Well seeing as Lindow, Sakuya and Soma aren't here, I thought I'd do the briefing."

"Well gee, someone loves attention."

Ohhhh the irony.

"Why don't you do the briefing then?"

"A bit late for that, "Captain"." Ash sneers as he rolls his eyes.

"Whatever." I sneer back, switching out my earphones for a single earpiece handset unit.

"Fine. Then... GENTLEMEN! Let's rape some Aragami ass!" Ash yelled, leaping off the ledge.

Thank you, for bringing every dam Aragami to us with that yell.

"Let's do this." I muttered in agreement, letting myself off the ledge using one hand.

Running to the left, I was slightly horrified as Ash started running off to the right alone.

Ah well, it's to be expected.

Heading out with Kota, it wasn't long before we heard a pair of Ogretails hopping about in a nearby alleyway. Holding my finger in front of my mouth in a classic "hush" motion, Kota and I slowly approached the two Ogretails, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

We didn't have to wait long as the Ogretails bent down to bite on what I could guess was a particularly attractive pile of snow.

Signalling for Kota to take the left while I took the right, we leaped out of our hiding spots, ambushing the Ogretails.

Sending my God Arc into Predator mode immediately, I felt the familiar rush of power as my blade started to glow, "Restrictions released! God Arc unleashed!"

Hacking and slashing the Ogretails with my sword in its default dagger grip, the Ogretail was quickly staggering from the hailstorm of cuts and slashes my God Arc inflicted on it.

"Hey hey hey! Bad Ogretail!" I heard Kota say behind me, as his Ogretail started to give chase to Kota after he only managed to get off a few shots.

Settling for a final stab in the face, I prioritised Kota's Ogretail first, taking my God Arc in both hands and quickly took it down.

Shooting a shot that just whizzed past my ear, I turned to Kota, "Hey! That was close!"

Looking in the direction he was pointing, I realised that the Ogretail I had left alone to go help Kota, was trying to sneak up on me until Kota shot it right in the face.

"Oh! Ummm, thanks man."

"Hey, what are friends for?"

Hearing a roar in the distance, I started heading for it when I heard a shout, "Holy crap, Gorilla!"

That idiot.

"Drop a flare!" I yell into my mic, trying to find the fastest way possible to our lone wolf teammate.

Seeing a flare shoot up into the sky, sending red sparks over what used to be the temple monk's quarters, I ran down the stairs just in time to find Ash facing up against a Kongou!

"Ash!" I yell, advanced stepping towards the figure with a shortsword.

"Watch out!" Kota yells.

Looking up at the Aragami that I shouldn't have taken my eyes off of, I watched in slow motion as the Kongou raised its arm and swung it right at me!

"Oh SHIT!"

Raising my buckler in time, the force of the blow still sends me crashing through a nearby wall, into what I assumed used to be someone's room.

"Man... I was hoping I didn't have to use this..."

Taking out a pill wrapped in bright yellow foil, I swallowed it down. The first thing that hit me, was that the pill had no taste, before I could feel grateful for that, a sudden rush of pain hit me as the Oracle Cells in my body activated in response to the pill, sending me straight into an artificially induced Burst Mode.

"Restrictions released. GOD ARC UNLEASHED!" I roared, shooting out of the hole in the wall, ready to take another crack at the Kongou.

Flying through the air over the Kongou's head, I wasn't one for missing opportunities and took a chunk out of the Kongou as I passed, causing it to roar in pain while Ash devoured its torso.

"I'M ON FIRE..."

Shooting an ice mortar at the newly on fire Ash, the response was immediate.

"Ow! What was that for!"

"I thought you were on fire."

"Bitch."

Before the argument could continue, the Kongou roared, earning a new pair of death glares from two pissed off rookies.

"Shut up!" Ash and I yelled simultaneously, stabbing the Kongou in the face.

Pulling out my blade with a sickening squelching noise, I roll backwards, flipping the trigger and changing my God Arc into its Gun Mode.

"Chew on this!"

Letting loose my new bullet, I shoot the Kongou's face while Ash had already stabbed the Kongou's shoulder and flipped behind it having a fun time with its tail.

Emptying my bullets into the Aragami until I was out of Oracle Points, I watched as the Kongou stagger backwards dangerously towards Ash!

Before I could shout out a warning, Ash had already leaped into the air and dived down, stabbing the Kongou in the process.

Maybe this guy had SOME skills on him.

Firing a few more of his fancy shots, Kota managed to scare the Kongou away while Ash and I recovered our stamina.

Tracking to the Kongou to a nearby dead end, I had an idea, "Alright here's the plan. I'm going to set up a snare trap at the corner, Ash and I rush in and devour the Kongou when it's not looking and we run back and let it run into the snare trap."

"Wow, the dude DOES know his plans and routes." Ash mumbled

"I can hear you you know."

Setting the snare trap right at the edge of the corner, Ash and I both rush in and devour the Kongou from opposing sides!

"I'm ON FIRE BABY!"

"Restrictions released. God Arc unleashed!"

Running back around the corner, Ash and I quickly took our places as the Kongou ran right into the Snare Trap and was held down by it!

Yes! Score one for awesome tactics!

Switching to gun mode, all three of us took aim and fired at the Kongou, downing it with our array of bullets.

Devouring the core with our God Arcs, all of us took a leisurely walk back to the Den.

"Oh guys, we're due in Paylor's lab for a lecture on Arcology."

"A lecture? Shit no! You woke me up from my sleep, shot me in the ass and now a freaking LECTURE? I'm so out of this!"

Running off before either of this could stop him, Ash shouted over his shoulder, "Oh, and tell the next woman you see I said hi!"

That guy is totally unbelievable.

Walking to Paylor's laboratory, as soon as Kota and I were seated, Paylor took a look around, "Where's Ash Shikigami? Shouldn't he be with you?"

"Uhhh, I don't think he's coming, it's better if you just started the lecture." I said with a shrug.

"Have you ever heard the term, "Arcology"?" Paylor asked, getting right into his lecture, pointing at a screen with a drawing of a cartoon version of himself and an Aragami.

Please, lose the diagram, it looks like its made for 10 year old kids. Then again, those watching this lecture aren't that much older.

"Arcology means "a building completely self-contained and self-sufficient in production and consumption."

Yeah, consumption is easy, it's the production bit that gets tricky.

Changing the slide to a picture of the Den from the outside, Paylor continued, "Yep... That's right... This Fenrir branch, with the Den at its center, can be thought of as a type of arcology. To put it in extreme terms, with the exception of a certain branch, should the entire Fenrir Corp collapse, this one remaining branch will be able to live on exactly as it did before, by taking full care of production and consumption on its own."

Yeah, when the Fenrir Corp does collapse, we shouldn't worry about production. More like worry about getting consumed.

Kota yawned at this point, maybe he didn't find it very interesting. The lack of explanatory diagrams must be taking its toll on him. Something tells me he'd stay more awake for flashy pictures and colourful diagrams.

"The Den has a fully equipped plant below for producing food, God Arc, and various other materials."

Ah yes! Pictures! When the slide changed to 5 pictures of the lobby, underground cafeteria, power plant, God Arc storage areas and food production plant, I saw Kota sit up a little more. Keep it up doctor, you just might make Kota last the entire lesson this time.

"And it boasts a solid defensive capacity, with an Anti-Aragami Armored Wall along its perimeter, not to mention you top-notch God Eaters, among other things."

Pardon me doctor, but the top-notch God Eater beside me is falling asleep again.

"That's the Fenrir branch in a nutshell, IT's a highly advanced arcology project optimized to protect humankind."

Not to be picky, but do you mind optimizing the food as well?

"But there's still one issue that plagues us... it can only house a limited number of people at any given time. As I'm sure you all know, there has been, for some time, a vast Outer Ghetto surrounding the Far East Branch. But the fact is, we still don't have the space available to house them all here."

Yeah I know about the Outer Ghetto, I stayed there and prayed I didn't get eaten.

"I'm afraid the best we can do at this time, is to surround the Outer Ghetoo with an Anti-Aragami Armored Wall."

That wall isn't as eifficient as you think doc.

"But do you think that's enough? I hear the armor has been compromised a lot lately." Kota said, finally awake enough to ask a question.

"Well, that's why we have the God Eater Defense Unit posted there... Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot that your family lives in the Outer Ghetto. Forgive me for sounding so flippant. Actaully, there was a plan to expand the Den downard, and build another Inner Residential Section..."

"But, the Aegis Project improved on that paln and made it even safer, right?"

Aegis Project... The project on Aegis Island designed to keep humankind safe forever, a utopia so to speak. Kota's must be really into it, if he would interrupt his naptime just to talk about it.

"Yes, at this time, most of the resources from the Far East Branch's underground plant are being allocated to Aegis Construction. Why don't we talk about that another time?"

Dismissal already? Oh well, the few things I learned could be applied somewhere. I hope.

End of Chapter 3

And that's another Chapter done! Don't forget to check out God Eater Burst Ash's Tale for his take on what happened! READ AND REVIEW


	5. Life As a God Eater Off Duty

Author: Well today you're going to have an off day in lieu of all the missions you've undergone

Insignis: Whaaaat? I don't want an off day! What if Aragami attack during my off day!

Author: There's this magical unit that will fend them off. They're called the Defense Unit.

Insignis: But... But...

Author: REST. NOW.

Insignis: Nooooooooooooo...

Chapter 4 Life as a God Eater Off Duty

After fighting the Kongou yesterday, a good night's rest was just the thing to get me ready for another day of killing Aragami. In fact, my sleep that night was so refreshing, I woke up in a good mood. Nothing could bring me down.

Not even Tsubaki.

"Morning Ma'am." I said happily, walking towards her with a bounce in my stride, "So what missions have you and Lindow got lined up for me today?"

"Haven't you heard the news?" Tsubaki said, eyes never leaving her famous clipboard, "Because of the backlog in paperwork, no search and destroy missions will be issued today. Only emergency defense missions will be taken care of by the Defense Unit."

Isn't it awesome how easily Tsubaki can kill a guy?

"Tsubaki, is it alright if I joined the Defense unit for duty?"

"Absolutely not, you are under Lindow's unit for a reason."

"And that is?"

"The First unit is known for its high survivability rate. Until you become more experienced, you will be under Lindow's tutelage."

Hoooo boy, Ash isn't gonna take this well.

"Yes Ma'am." I said gloomily, hanging my head and slouching my shoulders as I shuffled off.

"Ragner!"

"Yes Ma'am!" I said, spinning around happily, hoping for something to do.

"Take advantage of this day off. You won't get days like this often."

Returning back to the posture I had less than 10 seconds ago, I answered, totally void of hope, "Yes Ma'am..."

Heading down to the cafeteria, dragging my feet, I couldn't help but wonder what I could possibly do today in an "advanced arcology project optimized to protect humankind".

Walking around like a zombie was one thing.

Grabbing my food and sitting in a corner as I slowly ate my food, over chewing every mouthful, totally unaware of other people until a shadow loomed over my pathetic plate of pancakes.

"You're in my place you know." Soma said, glaring at me.

"Well the table seats four so you're welcome to sit here still." I said, gesturing to the three unoccupied seats around me.

"No thanks." he muttered, stalking off in another direction.

Maybe he just wasn't a morning person.

Getting up to get more maple syrup, or at least I thought it was maple syrup, God knows what it actually is, I returned to find Kanon happily eating away at her own bowl of cereal.

It had lumps, it had milk. It is cereal. I don't want to consider what else it could be.

"Morning Kanon." I sighed as I sat back down with my back to the corner, opposite her.

"Oh! Morning.. Ragner was it?"

"Yeah..." I mumbled through half a mouthful of syrup coated pancakes.

"You seem down, what's wrong?"

"Nothing much, I just don't have any missions today. So I'm stuck here with nothing to do."

"Lucky you, I'm on duty today with the Defense unit."

God be with the people she goes out with. Because if God isn't, her shots will be.

"I seriously wouldn't mind swapping with you, but it definitely won't fly with Tsubaki."

"I know, you're new. Why don't you take this opportunity to check out the recreational facilities downstairs?"

"This place has recreational facilities...?"

"Of course! God Eaters are not the only people staying at the Den. Some upper class people who can afford to live here also take some of the lower level accomodations. The facilities are actually intended for them but they never use it. So God Eaters who are off duty usually just go in and use them."

"I see..."

"If you want, I could take you down there before I leave for duty."

"I'd like that." I said, smiling as I finally finished my breakfast after what seemed like an hour.

Cool! I get a pink haired hottie as a guide! How awesome is that? Pity she has duty...

"Come on, let's go." Kanon said, finishing her cereal.

Following Kanon to the lobby, Kanon took me down the stairs and through the double doors opposite the counter.

"So... This is the residential section?"

"Yes! It houses none combat personnel and people who don't work at Fenrir."

"So... Gen and Licca stay here?"

"Yes, in fact, Licca and Gen's rooms are right there."

Looking down the end of the corridor, I watched as Licca herself appeared from one of the rooms Kanon was pointing at, wearing pjamas and yawning with a head full of bed hair.

Opening her eyes as she walked towards what I assumed was the shared bathroom, Licca noticed she was not alone and dashed back into her room with a small scream.

"Well, we'd better get going before she comes out again, I heard there are several objects in her room that are dangerous when hurled."

Aren't all objects dangerous when you hurl them.

Nodding in agreement, I followed Kanon down another elevator that took us down to what looked like a miniature indoor stadium minus the seats.

"Here we are!" Kanon said happily, "Oh! Sakuya's here already! I'll just leave you in her care then alright?"

"Yeah, you better hurry otherwise you'll be late."

Turning around and running off while waving goodbye, Kanon left again using the lift, leaving me alone with Sakuya.

"Morning rookie! Are you down here for some exercise?"

No Sakuya I'm here to see you, I'm totally so crazy over you that I've taken to stalking you. Not.

"Well, I was told by Tsubaki to take the day off so I just came down here looking for something to do."

"Well you're just in time! I was about to call Lindow down here to have a few games with me but I guess you'll do."

I'll do? Come on! I know I'm a rookie but that hurts.

"Hold on, if you want Lindow I'm sure I can call him down here..."

"There's no need Ragner, I just want to stretch my muscles for a bit. Or... Are you afraid of losing?"

I don't care if I lose or not. What I'm more interested in is just what the hell she wants to do.

"What's the game?"

Man I'm such a sucker.

Following her to a nearby storeroom, Sakuya pulled out several rackets of different kinds.

"So are you a badminton or table tennis kind of guy?"

"Doesn't matter, I've never played either one."

"Well it's never to late to learn."

After 2 hours of fumbling through a mixture of table tennis and badminton, Sakuya consulted her watch, "Oh! It's nearly lunchtime! We'll call it a day here then?"

"Sure, thanks for teaching me."

"Don't worry, you're a fast learner."

Bidding Sakuya goodbye after putting away the sporting equipment, I headed up for a shower when I ran into Gina.

I swear, her top's way too open for a girl, if it was open just a little bit more I could get a peek of her...

"Hey rookie." Gina said, giving me a lookover.

"Oh, hi... Gina was it?"

"You remembered my name, how flattering."

"Ummm, thanks."

"Have you been working out?"

"Uhhh, no, I was playing a few rounds of table tennis and badminton with Sakuya just now."

"Oh. Nice that she's finally found a player, most of us don't have much time to play, so Sakuya usually has to go looking for people."

That would explain why she's so good...

"Anyway, I'm thinking of heading down to have lunch, would you like to join me?"

"Umm, I'm thinking of getting a shower before I head down so..."

"I know, I'm also finishing up on the modifications I'm making to my scope. So I'll take it as a yes?"

"Sure."

Following Gina down, I tried as hard as I could to avoid the temptation of looking down her front. I barely succeeded as we reached the cafeteria.

"Hey Gina!" Brendan called out, causing Gina to turn in Brendan's direction.

Just when I thought I succeeded, I failed miserably. The view was awesome.

"Hey rookie, I'm gonna grab a seat with Bardell over there. You want to join us?"

"Ummm no thanks, I'll just grab lunch by myself."

"Aw come on rookie, don't be a spoilsport... Or do you want me all to yourself hmmm?"

"F-fine I'll join you guys."

I caved. How pathetic is that.

"Alright then."

Sitting with Brendan and Gina turned out to be more fun than I thought. Apparently Brendan came to Japan from America. Gina lost her eye when an Ogretail spike splintered and hit her in her left eye. It didn't stop her from being one of the best snipers on the 3rd unit though.

"So rookie, what's it like being a New-Type? Must be fun to be able to switch your role to whatever you need to be." Brendan said, finishing his food.

Somehow I knew the conversation was going to swing in this direction...

"Well, it's nice to be versatile. But knowing when to switch is something that still takes getting used to."

"Yeah, sounds like you got it rough man..."

Oh you have no idea...

"I heard that only New-Types are able to pass a link burst to their squad members. I wonder if it's true." said Gina.

"Yeah, we get the bullets while devouring in blade form then pass the condensed bullet to our team members. It's really useful actually." I replied.

"Oh? Remind me to take you on my next mission then."

"Uhhh I'm not sure that'll be a good idea... I really don't want to be a burden to you guys..."

"Don't sweat it! You'll be up to our standard in no time!" Brendan said, patting my back as he left.

That'll be my cue to leave too...

Walking out of the cafeteria after saying goodbye to Gina, I started to think about things I wanted to do until I saw a figure approaching at Mach 2. Strangely enough, I recognised the figure's white hair and bandanna.

"Oh no... Don't tell me it's..."

"OUTTA THE WAAY!"

Just what has that idiot gotten himself into now...?

"WHAT THE HELL!" I yell as I take a step back just in time to watch Ash zoom by.

"Hey, you got a good place to hide? Don't ask!"

"God Arc storage area, Warehouse 42."

"Thanks!" As he continued running for a split second before turning back, "Um, where is that?"

"SHIKIGAMI!" A voice cried out from around the corner

"AH CRAP!" Ash yelled, apparently trying to flee from the source of the voice.

"Go to the God Arc storage area, take the stairs down 2 floors. There will be a bunch of warehouses. 42 is always unlocked."

"Right on! Oh and say hi to..."

"SHIKIGAMI!"

"ARGH! SCREW THIS!"

And he was off again.

A few seconds later, Hibari came running by panting heavily. Stopping for a breath, she gave me a glare that could freeze stone.

"Ragner! Have you seen Shikigami!"

Something tells me if I give Ash up he'll be pissed, if I don't give him up Hibari will be pissed... Oh well here's to the lesser of two evils.

"He ran right into the cafeteria, I think he's hungry."

"Thank you." Hibari said nodding, dashing into the cafeteria, "SHIKIGAMI! YOU'RE SO DEAD!"

Time to go.

Running off before I became the new target of Hibari's wrath, I still found myself left with nothing to do, but this time 5 minutes less time than before.

"Hey rookie!"

I'm really getting sick of this nickname, I have a name dammit! It's Ragner!

"Yes Shun?"

"I'm heading down to the recreational center. Wanna come with?"

"Whatcha plan to do down there?"

"Was thinking a few games on the consoles, co-op mode is really a lot more fun than single player."

"Sure, why not?"

Following Shun back down to the recreation center, I was shocked to see Shun pull out a PSP from one of the drawers.

"Wait, why do you keep your PSP down here?"

"Might as well, I never get time to play it anyway."

Pulling out my own PSP from my pocket, (I brought it down once I found out I had no missions), Shun and I had a fun few hours beating each other around and trash talking.

We were about to start another round when my iPod started ringing.

"Dude, is your that your phone?"

"Not exactly..." I replied, pulling my iPod out.

"An iPod? Why's it ringing?"

"Long story. I did some tinkering with it."

Pulling out my headset, I took the call. Apparently Lindow wanted to see me.

Man, why did he want to see me now of all times... I was about to kick Shun's ass again.

"Sorry Shun, Lindow wants to see me for some reason, gotta go."

"Sure thing, play with you some other time?"

"Definitely."

Heading up to the veteran level, I noticed that there was a depression in the carpet outside Sakuya's room as if something heavy was placed there and removed recently. Ignoring my observation, I knocked on Lindow's door

"Come in! It's unlocked!"

"You called Lindow..?"

The next sight I saw, was a bit expected yet unexpected. Lindow was sitting on the couch set on the left side of the room, drinking a can of beer trying to throw darts at the board and failing abysmally.

"Hey there New-Type, wanna join me for a drink?"

New-Type and Rookie. Is there anything else this lot can call me?

"Uh Lindow, I don't think..."

"Aw c'mon, I've checked the personnel files already, you're legal. Plus I got Sakuya's share as well.

Go figure, stealing someone else's rations and checking other people's records just to find out whether they're at the legal drinking age. Way to go Lindow.

"Won't Sakuya be mad that you stole her beer?"

"Don't sweat the details rookie, she only signs up for the rations to pass them to me, she's not much of a drinker. Which is why I called you."

What makes you think I'M a drinker?

"Me? There are plenty of other Veterans to drink with Lindow."

"True, but Soma isn't exactly the type to socialize, and the rest are from other units. Relax Rookie, have a beer."

Taking the offered beer, I shrugged my shoulders and sat on the couch sipping the synthesized beer. It wasn't bad to be honest, but I had the sinking suspicion that I was being watched. Carefully turning to look at Lindow, I was right on the money.

"What?"

"Oh it's nothing. The first time Sakuya drank it she spat it all out. I was wondering if you were going to have the same reaction, that's all."

"Dude, isn't that a waste of beer?"

"It was only a mouthful. I would have wasted two cans just to see her make that face again."

"Aw man, wish I was there."

"Your loss."

Laughing as I tried my best to imagine Sakuya spitting out beer, time seemed to pass by faster as empty beer cans started to pile up.

"Oh yeah, to answer that question you asked me the other day, about me being acquainted with any girls below size D, there's Kanon. You still remember asking right?"

It was at that moment I really did spit out the beer I was about to drink, how was I supposed to know he would remember it?

"Easy there Rookie! I'm guessing you do remember huh?"

"You don't know Kanon that well either!" I sputtered, "If you did you would have mentioned her ages ago!"

"Ouch, you got me there"

Continuing to drink and laugh at random intervals, I suddenly stood up after my forth can.

"Hey rookie, where're you going?"

"I think I've had enough. We're on duty tomorrow Lindow, you should take it easy with the alcohol too."

"Aw don't be such a spoilsport..."

"Sorry, maybe some other time."

Excusing myself, I waited for the lift only to run into Licca.

The Gods are smiling on me today.

"Oh! Uhhh, hi Licca!"

"Eh? Hi Ragner." Licca replied, preoccupied with something.

"Something on your mind?"

"It's nothing. Don't worry about it."

"Wanna go out? You seem to need a night off."

"What do you have in mind?"

"It's a surprise. So you want to go?"

Nodding slowly, she flashed me a smile that set my face on fire. Turning my head, I quickly tried to hide my now flaming red face and heard a giggle for my efforts.

"Alright then, you want to pick me up after dinner?"

"Ok, I'll meet you at your room."

"Sure."

Getting off at the cafeteria, I was barely able to suppress my happiness as the lift door closed. As soon as it closed, I pumped my fist in the air in silent celebration before entering the cafeteria noticing Ash chatting up Kanon.

This guy never stops at one does he.

Walking over, I waved to catch his attention before pulling him to the side, "Dude I thought you were going with Sakuya?"

"Well... I haven't told you have I?", he said, pulling in closer to whisper, "what part of harem ending do you not get? Have you never played a simulator before?"

"Yeah but her? Dam, you must enjoy getting shot more than I thought."

"How bad can it get? I bet Shun's just too hot headed, rushing in and all."

"Ohhhh you have noooo idea my friend, have you SEEN the mission logs?"

"Well, that's a story for another time. Now, let's pray and hope no giant corn today. I'm sick of that shit."

Looking at the food server, I couldn't help but smile, "How do you feel about carrots?"

"Better than corn anyday let's chow!"

"What the hell is Giant Carrot on the Cob?"

"...Oh shit..." Ash muttered as he facepalmed.

"Yep, this is the time where I wish Doctor Paylor would stop screwing around with the menu."

Forcing down the large orange root, Ash and I exchanged a few smiles that spoke volumes about the food.

It. Was. DISGUSTING.

Doctor Paylor was indeed a genius when it came to Aragami and technology, but when it came to food, well... He should stop. For our sakes.

Heading over to Licca's room on the other side of the lobby, I stopped to check my reflection in a nearby window. My face, was almost as green as the disaster I just ate. Praying Licca wouldn't notice, I knocked on her room door.

"Come in it's open!"

Activating the door mechanism, I was mildly surprised when I entered her room. Her entire room was filled with tools and appliances half of which I didn't even recognise.

"Hey, I'll be ready once I finish." Licca said, appearing from behind a cupboard door.

My jaw dropped. Licca looked stunning. She had changed out of her work attire and now wore a blouse and skirt. I had changed into a shirt and jeans but even they were still Fenrir issue and laced wit Bias Factor. Her clothes were definitely tailored.

Crap, she's too well dressed. That skirt's gonna get dirty.

"Aw close your mouth, it's not that pretty." Licca said, pushing my mouth shut.

"Uh, ready to go?"

"Sure, mind telling me where we're headed to now?"

"First things first. God Arc storage area."

Raising her eyebrows, Licca followed me as I disengaged my God Arc from storage and took her out of the Den. 

"You still haven't told me. Where ARE we going?"

"The Old City, the night sky view is really something to die for."

"Hope not, I really enjoy my life as it is."

Laughing despite the lame pun, we finally reached our destination. Standing in front of one of the buildings, Licca eyed its holes that were likely inflicted by Aragami feeding on its walls.

"Is it safe?"

"Well, I've done a scan and it's structurally more sound then most of the other buildings." I said while pointing at a few box like installments, "I've also installed motion sensors that are linked via live feed to my iPod if any Aragami comes by."

"Wow, when did you set this up?"

"On my way back from my last mission out here, I took the opportunity to scan all the buildings while I was running after Ogretails."

"So you've been in here before?"

"Well, no. I wanted to share the view with someone. And I couldn't think of anyone else that I would want to share it with."

That sounded so corny...

Turning away after my statement, I could not help but notice her ears turn a little pink, possibly from what I just said, "Well, the view won't see itself so c'mon lets go!"

Climbing the stairwells and broken pillars to the top floor, Licca and I sat on a spot near a wall that had been eaten and turned our gazes to the dark night sky, the stars shining like diamonds in a dark abyss sea of black.

"The view is spectacular!" Licca whispered to me as she leaned backwards on her hands, staring up through the hole in the wall and ceiling, her legs swinging back and forth over the ledge.

"Yeah, it looks even better when you look at it while lying down." I added, motioning for Licca to lie down as well.

"It's so nice to have a night out, just a little time not thinking about work, it really does wonders..." Licca said dreamily, lying down.

"Yeah, especially when... huh?" I said, looking down in shock as Licca slid her hand in mine.

Turning towards me, Licca smiled. Lost in her eyes, I felt myself going red in the face but it didn't matter. That smile, it said so many things. I couldn't even convey it all even if I had all the time in the world. But that didn't matter. All that mattered was that I was here and...

"Shit." I cursed under my breath, placing my free hand on the ground.

"What's wrong?"

"We're not alone, and this isn't good."

"The motion trackers were set off?"

"That's the thing, the motion tracker signals are... Dead... Those things didn't trip them, they ATE them."

Placing my hand on the ground, I tried to feel the vibrations caused by the movement of our unwelcome "guests".

"I've got... 4 feet..."

"That could be anything... A Vajra has four feet."

"Two sets of footprints... Two two-legged creatures... Judging by the weight of the footsteps... Ogretails."

"Ragner! Right ahead!"

Opening my eyes and returning to the here and now, I was not suprised to see that the two Ogreetails had already reached us.

And my God Arc was right in the middle of us, stabbed in the ground as Licca and I started stargazing.

The Ogretails stepped forward cautiously, whether because of the Bias Factor in my clothing or because my weapon was so close to them I had no idea. What I did know, was that if I didn't get my God Arc soon, this wouldn't be so much of a battle than a massacre.

I had several options, I could do a rush for the weapons and pray that I make it in time, or I could try a stun grenade, but the light might cause the Ogretails to flail and in a building like this, it wouldn't handle the stress.

Going with option A, I crouched in a low stance, ready to spring forward once the Ogretails weren't poised to strike. I didn't have to wait long as the Ogretails started to eye the two targets, once its eyes were on Licca... I leaped forward into a roll, grabbing my God Arc and facing the Ogretail closest to the edge.

Roaring at me as its eyes narrowed, I sidestepped its spike attack, only to have it spring on its tail ready to lunge forward at me.

"Ragner! Help!"

Turning to Licca, I watched as she slid closer and closer to the edge as the Ogretail slowly approached her.

Returning my attention back to the first Ogretail, I narrowly rolled away in time to have it spring at nothing and land on the edge at the other side.

"Eat size 12!" I yelled as I slammed my foot into the Ogretail, sending it flying off the ledge and down to the ground below.

Turning to face the other Ogretail, it seemed to care less about its buddy that I had just sent for flying lessons and still more focused on Licca. Raising its tail above its head, shooting spikes point blank at Licca, I tried to bring up my buckler as I shoved her out of the way roughly, managing to block the majority of the spikes, a few embedding themselves in my arm.

"Ragner!"

Ignoring Licca's shout as I gritted my teeth, I flipped the catch, sending my God Arc into devouring mode. Thrusting the gigantic jaw forward, I devoured the Ogretail, and instead of releasing it, used the jaw as leverage to swing the Ogretail over the edge with his buddy, accidentally dragging myself along as well.

Flying over the ledge into freefall, I nearly lost my dinner as the falling sensation hit me like a hammer. Sure I'd flown through the air, jumped off buildings. But those were controlled falls. Not the kind where you just flew off from the top floor of a building with no way to slow your fall.

I was mad.

Turning towards the Ogretail, I released it from my devouring God Arc and spun my body in midair to slash its torso. Earning a cry for my efforts, I started spinning my body, slashing the Aragami following it with a few stabs into its face. I was angry. Angry at the Ogretails for ruining my time with Licca, angry for them eating the damn motion sensors I spent so long to make and set up. Then finally, it dawned on me. I wasn't angry at the Ogretail or the fact that they attacked. I was angry at myself. For my selfishness, Licca was put into harms way. If I hadn't done something so stupid, this wouldn't have happened. Looking back down at the nearly dead Ogretail, I calmly flipped the trigger morphing my God Arc into gun mode. Pointing it down at the Ogretail that I flew off with, I saw the other Ogretail that I had kicked right below. Perfect.

Firing down ice mortars at them, the impact killed the first Ogretail and frightened off the second as I somersaulted, landing a little less gracefully than I had hoped, my face planted into the ground.

Dusting myself off, I was about to head back into the building to find Licca when...

"Ragner! Are you alright!"

That saves me the trouble of a few flights of stairs.

"Yeah, how about you?"

"Not a scratch. Here, let me help you with that." Licca said, pulling a few bandages out of her bag and wrapping my arm with them, "It's a temporary fix, you'll need to have it checked at the medical bay.

"I'm sorry..." I quickly said, while she finished dressing the wound.

"For what?"

"For all this. For putting your life in danger. For not taking enough precautions. For all the trouble I've caused you tonight."

To my surprise, she looked up at me with a smile without any grudges, "I'm not sorry."

"Huh?" I said, stopping right in my tracks.

"What's wrong?" she asked, turning around.

"I just put your life in danger! OUR lives in danger! Just for one night out! How can you not be mad at all!"

"You took me out, you tried your best to keep me safe. You even put yourself in harms way for my sake. What more can I ask for? Look at the bright side of this Ragner." Licca replied, walking over to me and sliding her arm around mine.

Her hand... It's so soft...

Looking away as another wave of red hit my face. I heard Licca giggle again as we headed back to the Den.

Closing the Den's door behind us, Licca motioned for me to put my God Arc in one of the maintenance storage areas.

"I'll do an emergency maintenance on it. All God Arcs have to go under maintenance when they return. I'll "forget" to do the paperwork so nobody will know we've been out ok? I'll meet you at the medical bay."

Nodding as I set it on the machine, I quickly took the lift to the Veterans level and knocked on Sakuya's door.

"Mmph... Who is it?"

"Sorry to call so late, it's Ragner, I need your help for something."

As the door slid open, Sakuya walked out sleepily, rubbing her eyes, "What is it Ragner? It's nearly 11pm..."

"I just need you to help me with something." I said, pulling off the bandages.

Inspecting the arm nonchalantly, Sakuya's eyes widened when she realised what she was touching, "Ragner! How'd you get this!"

"An Ogretail...?" I said sheepishly, trying my best to look innocent.

"How'd you get a wound from... Now I know why you came to see me..."

"Sorry..."

"Don't apologise to me. Just don't try something so dangerous again. You're a rookie, it's not safe for you to be out alone."

Removing the spikes and applying antiseptic to the wound, Sakuya carefully wrapped up my arm like an expert before nodding and heading back into her room.

Maybe if I wore something with longer sleeves this wouldn't have happened...

Licca was waiting for me at the medical bay already when I reached there, "So did you get it treated? You were gone a while."

"Yeah, I got Sakuya to do it, no point troubling the doctor and answering awkward questions."

"Oh.. good idea. Anyway, your God Arc's maintenance is nearly done. It should be ready by tomorrow. It's getting late, do you want to head off to bed?"

"I'll take you back to your room."

Escorting Licca back to her room without incident, she stopped at her door instead of opening it.

"Is something wrong?" I asked, since she hesitated.

"Thank you Ragner, it's been a long time since I was able to relax."

"It's nothing..."

Stopping my sentence short, I suddenly became aware of how close Licca and I were. We were so close I could feel her breath on my neck, as both our faces turned bright red.

"Licca...?" I whispered, unsure of what to do next.

To hell with the consequences.

Leaning forward, I closed my eyes until I felt Licca's arms on my chest pushing me back, not with a lot of force, but enough to make me stop.

"I'm sorry, I'm not ready for this yet. Goodnight Ragner."

Turning around, Licca opened the door to her room and went in before locking it shut behind her.

My God what have I done?

End of Chapter 4

Read... Enjoy... Favourite it if you like it, story alert it if you want to follow it... Routine stuff.


	6. What Are Friends For?

Author: Well I hope you enjoyed your 24 hour break.

Insignis: Whaaat? That's all?

Author: You were totally singing a different tune yesterday... -_-

Chapter 5 What Are Friends For?

The first thing I noticed when I woke up, was the splitting headache that was tearing my head open. Man, it's like someone drove a truck through the room and over my head...

Speaking of trucks... That was a real train wreck of a date last night... What was I thinking, going in so soon! It was definitely too fast! What happened after my botched date was a little fuzzy, looking around the room in confusion, I noticed the opened crate of beer that Lindow had apparently left me.

Oh hell no...

The night came back to me immediately, after blowing up my date, I had come back and just started boozing my night away, finally dumping my last drink unceremoniously down the sink and collapsed in the bed.

Damn that was stupid.

Continuing my mental admonishment as I headed off to breakfast, I could tell that not many people were up when I reached the lobby, hell, even Hibari wasn't up yet. Just what time was it anyway?

Nevermind, I might as well find something to do while everyone gets up. I figure one of the lower difficulty missions should be fine even if I'm alone.

Logging into Hibari's computer behind the mission reception desk, I was logged in with her username in a matter of minutes.

Note to Hibari: LessTatsMori74 is NOT a password.

Accepting the "Cowboy" mission after entering my name as the God Eater taking the mission, I quickly headed down to the God Arc area, with Licca nowhere in sight.

Lucky break.

Initializing the system program that released God Arcs, I quickly found my God Arc under the emergency maintenance list, apparently it had just finished a couple of hours ago.

Before I could grab my God Arc however, I heard the door to the storage area open and close along with the footsteps of what sounded like an engineer's boots.

Oh gawd, don't tell me that's... Licca.

"Hello...? Who's there?" Licca called out, rubbing the remnants of sleep from her eyes, trying to focus on the figure that was desperately smacking the computer as his God Arc slowly made its appearance.

"Ragner?"

"Uhhh... No Kusonoki! It's... Uhhhh... Ash here! I'm just uhh... Grabbing my God Arc... To uhhh... Go out! Yes! For a walk! See ya!"

-Sunken Ruins-

Damn this place could use a little sunshine. Before I could hop down off the ledge I was perched on, my iPod rang.

Plugging in my wireless headset, "Hello! Ragner speaking!"

"Ragner? This is Licca, where are you?"

"Huh? I'm still in my room."

"Can you please answer the door?"

"What?"

"I'm outside your room, knocking on the door, why can't I hear it on your phone?"

"..."

"Where are you really?"

"..."

"Ragner..."

"Sunken Ruins."

"What? Why? You don't have any missions this early."

"I needed to clear my head."

"And Sunken Ruins had really fresh air? C'mon Ragner... What's really bugging you?"

"I'd... Rather not say..."

"Is it... What happened yesterday?"

All girls are mind readers.

"Hahaha, of course not!"

"Then why are you so keen about avoiding the issue?"

"I'm not avoiding, I'm just starting the mission."

"Ragner... Look... I-I'm sorry... For yesterday..."

"Licca? It sounds like you're breaking up on your end."

"I'm not you idiot! It's-It's hard to talk about this sort of thing!"

Slashing a nearby Ogretail, I rolled to the side, avoiding a few spikes in the process. Talking while fighting, awesome idea.

"..."

"Hello? Ragner?"

"I-I'm sorry."

"For what?"

Rolling inwards, I held my God Arc in a dagger grip and jumped while swinging my God Arc diagonally upwards catching its midsection and cutting through the core. So much for extracting it.

"For trying to... You know..."

"For trying to what?"

"To... TO KISS YOU!" I practically yelled.

Great, that attracted two more Ogretails.

Aside from a sharp gasp, I couldn't hear anything on Licca's end.

Rushing forward, I slid under a spike attack that the closest Ogretail launched at me. Clearing the spikes with ease, I quickly leaped into the air, slamming my God Arc down right on the Ogretail's head slamming it headfirst into the ground.

"Licca? Are you still there?"

"Ha? U-um, yes! I-I'm still here! What d-do you want?"

Why's she stammering all of a sudden?

"Are you ok? You sound... Flustered."

"F-flustered? I-I'm not flustered! Wha-What makes you think that?"

Ok, I gotta finish this quick, I hate two on ones...

"The fact that you're stammering?"

Swinging my God Arc in dagger grip, I caught the first Ogretail across the face and let the blade stick with an eerie squelching sound as I grabbed the God Arc handle in my alternated sword grip. Following through with the swing, the first Ogretail slammed into the second through sheer momentum as I withdrew the blade sending it into devouring mode ready to devour them both at once.

That is, if I had actually bothered to make sure the second Ogretail was not ready to attack back.

Springing on its tail, the second Ogretail hopped and tackled me to the ground, sending my God Arc skidding away while I was pinned under several hundred kilos of Aragami.

"Ragner? What was that noise?"

Too bad I was too preoccupied to answer.

Roaring in my face, the Ogretail bent down and would have taken a chunk out of my head if I hadn't tucked it to the left.

Reaching into my pocket, I drew out a stun grenade and flicked the pin out before holding it to the Ogretail's eye.

"Eat this."

Detonating the stun grenade in the Ogretail's eye, it roared and reared its head back in pain, giving me time to roll out from under it and make a mad dash for my God Arc.

"Eat what?"

"Sorry, was talking to the Aragami."

"You TALK to Aragami?"

Awesome, now she thinks I'm a complete nut.

"It was a figure of speech."

Running straight for my God Arc, I barely dodged in time from the first Ogretail, taking a spring at where my body was a mere split second before I rolled.

Grabbing my God Arc and sending it into gun mode, I spun around and let loose a pair of spinning bullets before falling to the ground along with the Ogretails, panting heavily.

"Man, I didn't think going solo it would be this rough." I said to myself.

"Going solo? You're on a mission alone?"

Why for the love of all things good and holy do I keep forgetting Licca's on the line?

"Uhhh... Yeah, I am heheheheh."

"Don't heheheheh me Ragner! You're a rookie and you're winging it? You could die out there!"

"Thanks for the concern Licca, but as soon as I extract these two cores, I'm outta here."

"You'd better be!"

Shaking my head, I quickly devoured the two Ogretails, turning around to head back when I heard a roar from not far off, a roar that was definitely NOT from an Ogretail.

"What was that?" Licca said through the speaker, obviously hearing the roar through my mic as well.

"I... Have no clue. The mission said there were only 4 Ogretails. And I just killed the 4th one."

"Ragner, sometimes there are OTHER Aragami on the mission field, they're just not mission priority."

"I... Think that this is the worst possible time to learn that lesson."

Sighing into the mouthpiece causing static to erupt on my end, Licca could have been shaking her head by the sound of her voice, "Never mind that... What're you up against now."

Looking straight at the Aragami as it launched a lightning ball at me, I was too busy scanning it with my glasses to answer.

"Ragner?"

"Uhhh... Vajra."

The next thing I heard, was something I didn't want to hear. It blew my eardrums, "WHAT!"

"Vajra... A tiger Aragami that fires lightning from the cape-like organ..."

"I know the description! Wait, how would you know this? A rookie..."

"Uhhh, the info is scrolling across my glasses right now..."

"Across your what?"

"I'll explain later! Right now I have to... Ooooff!"

Mistiming my dodge, I rolled out of the Vajra's swipe too slowly, getting hit by its claw, and sent flying into the nearest solid concrete wall. Between my back and the concrete wall,

Unfortunately for me, the concrete wall won.

Biting back tears and spitting out blood from my mouth, I quickly ate a recovery pill before getting back on my feet and ready to rush back in.

Which I didn't have to do.

The Vajra saved me the trouble and leaped at me, slashing my arm with its razor sharp claws.

"Licca... Any tips on how to fight a Vajra...? I'm getting killed out here... And I don't think that's a figure of speech."

"RUN! RAGNER! JUST RUN FOR IT!"

"Wouldn't that be abandoning the mission?"

"Better abandoning than dead! GET OUT OF THERE!"

Roger that.

Pulling out my last stun grenade, I quickly tossed it over my shoulder as I headed back for the den as fast as my jelly legs could take me.

Limping through the door to the God Arc storage area, my tail hung between my legs, I wordlessly handed my God Arc over to Licca as she sent it down for maintenance.

"Listen Ragner about..."

"Can we leave it for another time? I really need to get something from my room."

Nodding in acknowledgement, Licca stood aside as I grabbed a bottle of pills from my room, taking two before heading back to the lobby and dropping my half dead body next to Ash with a grunt.

"Hey Rag's, what's up."

I was really really not in the mood to answer him at this point in time.

"Dude, what happened?" he asked me again, clearing wanting an answer.

Well, if he wants an answer, I guess I'll give him one.,"I got my ass whooped…"

"Dude is that what you're worried about? Is that it?"

"Why don't you try having your ass whooped?"

"Ass whooped? The greaet Ash never gets..."

That's it, I've had enough.

Grabbing Ash by his smug little collars, I had half a mind to teach him a lesson he won't forget for quite a long time, "How about I whoop it right now?"

Blinking for a while as it sank Ash still continued, "You don't get what this is about do you?"

Is this guy for real?

"Yeah, really. I don't. Enlighten me."

Eyes rolling upwards indicative of thinking his next reply just sent me out the window, "You know what, I can't. But all I know is that I won't fail like you."

It's almost like he never thought about what to say at all. Sending him halfway across the floor, I stood there, panting heavily as I tried as hard as I could to resist the temptation of continuing what I started. A temptation I failed to stop in the first place.

"Was that it? If you got something stuck there..." Ash said, pointing at his head, "Calm down and talk. Or do you wanna hit me back again?"

This guy... Raising my fist up for another whack at this wacko, I finally started to think rationally again as I dropped my fist, "Talk about what this time. And as a warning, pick your words carefully."

"So, spill it or I'll make you spill." he replied, rubbing his newly acquired bruise, "And that hurt, asshole."

"It's meant to. Deal with it. I'm feeling slightly better now, depressed as hell. But damn that punch felt awesome."

"Why did you get "ass whooped"? I don't believe you would do anything I wouldn't call crazy, and dude... are those SLASH marks?"

"Yeah, from my new friend the Vajra."

"You one-on-one a Vajra? Dude I always wanted to..." Catching the look on my face, and my fist that was ready to make a new hole, he quickly adapted to the situation, "Oh uh... I mean, that was retarded, what was that for?"

"The mission details said 4 Ogretails, it said no shit about bloody Vajra."

"Then why fight it alone? Run the hell back and get back up."

"It's gone already. This isn't the only souvenir I got from him." I said, pulling my shirt up slightly so he could look at the bruise I got.

"Ouch, really did a number on you... So, when's the next mission hunt for this thing?" Ash said, staring at it intently.

"There will not be a mission hunt!" Tsubaki said, as she walked down the stairs towards us. Ash was extremely quick on the uptake, "WHAT! What do you mean no mission hunt!"

"A mission that difficult is out of the question for you rookies! The Retaliation squad will handle the Vajra. Ragner, go get that bruise checked out by your unit medic or the medical bay."

"SCREW THE RETALIATION SQUAD!" Ash yelled, as he slammed his hand down on the table.

"Yeah! Everyone knows the defense squad is so much better!" Bards yelled, mimicking Ash.

Glared at by Tsubaki, Bards quickly made a hasty retreat before Tsubaki could act on said death glare.

"Rags, can you move your body properly?"

"Sure, it's nothi... whoa!" I said as I fell to the floor spectacularly.

"I'll get you to Sakuya, right this bloody instant." Ash said, ignoring Tsubaki's glare of impending doom, Ash strutted up to the counter and grabbed the mic from Hibari, "Sakuya Tachibana, wherever you are, you are needed in the medical room immediately for urgent treatment of a patient. Please report NOW."

"I'm fine. I'll be fine in a few minutes." I say, getting to my feet shakily.

Walking up to me, Ash slaps me on the back, to his surprise, I don't yell out like he expected.

Here's to you! HA!

"Um... You're supposed to scream in pain?"

"And give you the satisfaction? Not on your life."

"Wah, I... Look just go, I sacrifice my ass for yours. And I swear, I think Tsubaki does more damage than that Vajra. I didn't make that announcement for fun you know? I'll tell you my awesome plan once you're back down."

Smiling as I stretch my muscles all over, "Feel free to start now."

"I can't, Tsubaki will kill me. Look, just go. I'll go get you soon, I just have to distract her awhile."

Sighing in resignation, I head over to the lift mentally thinking of ways to get out of this and somehow fake a visit to the medical bay. Painkillers are painkillers for a reason. Grabbing a change of clothes to make my visit upstairs convincing, I returned back down to find Ash waiting for me in the lobby.

"We go find that Vajra and give it some REVERSE ass whoop."

"Man... Can't this wait til another day? God knows where the Vajra is right now."

"Look, we're going, and we go now cuz I want some action, but I need to show off to somebody."

Please not Sakuya, please not Sakuya, please not Sakuya, please not Sakuya.

"Who do you have in mind?"

"You! Dumbass! Now come on, but make sure your girlfriend doesn't tell anyone we've went."

It felt as if my face just got set on fire, "Sh-she's not my girlfriend! Anyway, she's having lunch right now..."

"Yeah? So I can have her?"

Looking away at the mention of Licca, I didn't exactly know what to feel, "Go ahead..."

"Well, I'll save that for another time, but we got more important stuff to do." Ash said, tugging my shoulder missing the wince that I made as he led me off, "Come on, we go now."

Going into the main God Arc storage area, I massaged the area that Ash had touched as I picked up my just used God Arc.

"Say, isn't she usually with you? Why didn't you two eat together, that's proper dating rules man."

I can't tell him about what happened... Not now.

"Things happened... It's complicated. Are we getting a Vajra or what."

"Avoiding the question gets you no where... But yeah, I'm itching to get this thing."

"Last I saw it was in the sunken city. Sector 34A, lets move."

"Right, let's do it!"

-Enter scene changing events, cue Sunken City intro movie-

"Uh... This DOES look pretty empty, you sure it was here?"

Sighing inwardly at this I knew this was going to happen, "I told you already... I have no idea where it went. It's been over 3 hours. It's probably moved on."

"Oh right, if that's the case... Wait, what the heck is THAT?" Ash yelled, pointing at a figure in the distance.

"Hey, that... Never mind. So then... Do we sneak or rush in like idiots? You, probably pissed at it might run in on it."

Not everyone is hotheaded Ash. There might be more Aragami in the picture that we don't know about. I'd rather look for those first. Placing my hand down on the ground, I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate on nothing else but the vibrations in the ground... Focusing on the vibrations made by the far away footsteps, I phased out the roaring of the whirlwind and concentrated... Concentrated... There only seemed to be the footsteps of the Vajra, but it always paid to check.

"Just one Vajra. Nothing else nearby."

"You sense by doing that?"

"It's not really sense... I feel the vibrations in the ground made by footsteps... By feeling the vibrations made, factor in how far they are, how heavy they are and their pace, I can tell what it is and how fast its moving."

"In other words, we charge in like idiots?"

"Feel free to do so, that thing moves wicked fast. It can outrun you easily."

"But you agreed to go with me despite the fact that it's overpowered anyway." Ash said, readying his God Arc, "At the very least, we give it a few darn good slashes.

Flipping my trigger I send my God Arc into gun mode, "In time we will. But I'd rather weaken it first."

As Ash ran in from behind the Vajra, I took up my spot at a building's window, adjusting my aim with the link-in scope on my glasses.

"Alright then, just don't mortar me like the last time!"

That wasn't an accident...

Taking careful aim with my God Arc, I let loose two Divine bullets that shot forwards before making a 90 degree turn to aim right at its head.

Hearing the roar, I couldn't help but grin in satisfaction until I looked out the window again, apparently the roar wasn't because I shot it twice, but because Ash had went ahead and devoured it.

Oh well, as long as it goes down.

Before Ash can attack it again, the Vajra leaped into the air, obviously looking for the source of the shots. Launching a lightning maul at Ash, it lands deftly as the lightning maul expands and explodes around Ash, sending him flying backwards.

Man, even I didn't see that one coming.

Using the last of my Oracle points, that I dropped a few Divine bomb shots from the building right into the Vajra's face.

"Shit... Gay bastard", running back after hitting the wall, Ash was not out of the fight just yet, "Time for payback!"

As it entered rage mode with Ash halfway to the Vajra, an idea struck me in the form of the stun grenades in my pocket.

Hm, I wonder if I can load stun grenades into this thing...

Popping my head out of the new vantage point I found, I see Ash sliding out from under the Vajra.

Good, he's clear.

Pointing my God Arc down at the Vajra's head again, I pull the trigger to launch a stun grenade right at the Vajra's face, making it explode on impact.

Awesome shot, now it's really seeing stars.

After Ash manoeuvres behind the Vajra and cuts off its tail, Ash freezes up while staring at it.

Dude you have an opening and you don't even want to use it?

Leaping out of the building after eating an oracle pill, I point my gun vertically downwards firing off the last of my oracle points as Divine bomb shots unbinding the oracle cells in the Vajra's head.

Alternating back to blade mode in the middle of my descent, I yell out a battle cry, while slamming my blade into the Vajra's head and right through it, causing it to howl as it rolled over.

Is it... Dead?

Seems to be as I poked it again with my God Arc getting no response from it. Sending my God Arc into devouring mode, I extracted the core from the Vajra without problems.

Now to address the next issue, "Hey man, why'd you freeze up like that?"

"Freeze up? When did I ever do anything like that?"

Acting cute. Great.

"Don't bullshit me man. You were just staring at that tail."

"Was I " Ash replied, blinking.

"Uh, yeah duh?"

"Nah, must've been your imagination. I don't freeze in epic battles, that's wasted moments, buddy."

"And you were wasting quite a bit of time on that epic tail."

"Urgh... Look, we beat the lightning lion, that's good enough. Now we better get back before Tsubaki finds out we've been breaking rules."

"Amen to that... I wouldn't be surprised if Tsubaki eats us alive... Some things even Bias Factor can't save us from huh?"

"I'm too scared to even think about that. But don't worry, I THINK I managed to convince Hibari to not tell on us when we went for your "checkup"."

What checkup? I didn't go for any... Oh...

"Right. Touch her ass to convince her?"

"What kind of conclusion is that? I'd never ever do that!"

"That's not what I heard yesterday."

"Who did you hear that from anyway?" Ash yelled as an anime sweatdrop formed behind his head.

"Tachibana." Arriving right at the entrance of the den after our chat, we returned our God Arcs to Licca who was waiting for us.

Returning his God Arc and hurrying off Ash couldn't leave without dropping a comment, "Have fun with your girlfriend."

Blushing simultaneously at the remark, Licca and I stared at each other for a good 5 minutes before Licca decided to start, "So uhhh Ragner, you said that you were not in the mood the last time we talked?"

"Oh yeah! Sorry about that, I uhhh, really needed to get something for all the scratches I got from the Vajra."

"So you feeling better now?"

"Definitely. Thank you so much, for everything. I owe you one."

"I'll collect." Licca replied, in a singsong voice with a smile.

"I'm sure you will."

"So... About that time..."

"What time?"

Turning bright red Licca looked down at the ground, "That time... You know... After the... Date?"

"Oh! Uhhh... What about it?"

"I wanted to give you this."

Rushing forwards and wrapping her arms around me, Licca gave me a hug. Normally I would have enjoyed it, but this time, I had a giant bruise on my back and the painkillers were wearing off so instinctively I pulled away.

"Ragner?"

Oh boy, now I've done it all right, she looks like she's about to cry.

"No! No! It's not what you think! I enjoyed the hug! It's just that..."

"What is it?"

"I think it's better if you just see for yourself."

Pulling up my shirt, I showed Licca the bruise that the Vajra gave me.

"Oh my goodness..."

"Yeah. Well, I better run before Ash gets any funny ideas, see you around yeah?"

"Sure! Wait! You promised to tell me about your glasses!"

"Maybe another time!" I yelled happily, rounding the corner.

End of Chapter 5


	7. Crocodiles and Dates

Author: What're you doing?

Insignis: Tinkering

Author: What's that?

Insignis: That's for me to know and you to find out.

Chapter 6 Crocodiles and Dates

A few days after returning from the Europe branch, Licca was looking for me about my sunglasses. She still wanted to take a look at them and was a bit pissed that I left for Europe before letting her have a look. Since Licca's taken to hunting me down during the day when I don't have missions, I decided to spend time in the only place that Licca wouldn't look for me.

My room.

Awesome place, a bit cramped but I'm not staying in some 5 star hotel so I guess I gotta let it slide. After a little rearranging of the furniture, I had my own little workbench to fool around with the materials I had collected.

Yeah I know I know, there's a workshop downstairs that is supposed to be used whenever we craft objects out of Aragami materials but all those crafted objects just go into our God Arcs. Hasn't anyone ever tried to make anything fun out of the materials where the end prodcut DOES NOT get stuck, slotted or inserted into our God Arcs?

I guess not.

"So the magnesium is powdered and mixed with oil... Or should I use a magnet instead...?"

As I continued to fiddle and play with the materials on the table in front of me, a head suddenly popped into my field of vision, "Watcha doing?"

Falling off the stool landing painfully on my still bruised back, I stared up at the ceiling and at Licca who was giggling away at successfully scaring the living daylights out of me.

"How'd you get in? I would've heard..."

"If you've been here long enough, you'll learn how to open doors silently. So what're you up to?" Licca said, squatting down over me. Damn, no skirt. What I wouldn't do to see...

"Um Ragner? Earth to Ragner? Are you there? The fall didn't do too much damage did it? What're you looking at..." Licca said, following my gaze to her pants. Uh oh, potentially life threatening situation.

"Uhhh, I was trying to see if I could make something useful out of the raw materials I gathered..." I said, quickly looking away.

"Oh..? Can I help?"

"Sure... I'm trying to figure out the best catalyst to use to catapult a small object..."

"What for? If I had an idea of what you plan to make maybe I could..."

"It's for a grappling hook."

"A grappling hook? What would you need one for?"

"Well for one it beats climbing the stairs." I muttered under my breath, grinning at the thought.

"I heard that. And how do you plan to use it?"

Pointing my iPod at the nearby terminal, I sent the rough blueprint drawing I had made to the terminal causing it to appear on the screen.

Walking over to the terminal, Licca started to analyse the drawing, rotating it to have a look from different angles, "It's a sound idea. Where'd you get the idea from if I may ask?"

"I had it since our little excursion, when I went off the building with that Ogretail."

"Wait... So let me get this straight... While having it out with a hundred kilogram Aragami in freefall, you're thinking about grappling hooks?"

"Not like that but I was thinking about how I could use one to get up to you faster, climb buildings and that sort of stuff."

Nodding at my answer, Licca went back to studying my drawing, "Fair enough, so you intend to make a grappling hook in the form of a glove... Interesting... What do you intend to use as a propellant?"

"That's where I'm stuck actually... I'm thinking between magnesium oil as a fuel, a detonator to fire it, or an ignitor."

"Those would work... If you wanted to blow your hand off in the process."

"I was thinking of using only a small amount of fuel to limit the explosion's area..."

"It would weaken the power and range of the hook. If you use the amount if fuel required to make the hook efficient, it would burn your hand, not to mention it'll only be a one time use."

"So fuel's a no go."

"What about this?" Licca asked, holding up a weak magnet.

"I thought about using it... But the power generated is way too small for it to even fire the hook, let alone send if over a distance."

"I'll ask around and see if I can strengthen it, you just work on the hook itself ok?"

"Sure, thanks a lot."

The hook itself wasn't too much if a problem, a carbon fibre glove with soft iron claws on the fingers that were the individual hooks. When launched, they should, and I emphasise should because this is purely theoretical, shoot out and wrap themselves around the nearest object in its trajectory. Meeting up with Licca in the lobby, she was panting slightly as she handed me the magnet, "Strengthened and all ready to go. Should have quite a few charges before it runs out."

"Haha, well, I guess I owe you another then."

"Another? I'd say the date was the equalizer."

"Hm... I guess... Any idea how I can repay this one? Another date?"

"Tempting... But how about something simpler? Something that can be done right now?"

Oh my gawd, don't tell me... She wants that? No! Stay calm! Don't think about it! Don't think about it! The nosebleed will give me away! Don't think about it!

"Ragner? Are you ok? Your face is getting a little red."

"Uhhh, yeah I'm fine!" I said, giggling nervously, "Wh-what do you want?"

"A look at your glasses." Licca said grinning from ear to ear."

I should've seen this one coming... She's been itching to have a look at them ever since that incident with the Vajra...

"Sure... You wanna look at them now?"

"Mmhm! Follow me." Taking me out of the lobby and into her living quarters, I noticed amidst all the mechanical hardware in her room, there was a workbench at her room's 'window' too. I guess great minds think alike.

"So, may I have a look at them?" Licca asked, hand outstretched. Taking them off reluctantly, I quickly turned to look away before Licca looked at my eyes, apparently too slowly.

"Wow, you should take off your glasses more often."

"It's just for this time."

"Aww, but it looks so pretty!" Licca protested, trying to turn me around to get another look.

"It's abnormal."

"Doesn't mean it's not pretty. Now c'mon! Let me have another look!"

"Weren't you supposed to be looking at the glasses?"

"Yeah, but I wanna hold onto them for a while."

"Nuh uh, no. That wasn't part of the deal."

"Please~?" Turning to sneak a look over my shoulder, I watched as Licca slowly widened her eyes and gave me the puppy dog face that would END all puppy dog faces. She'd make puppy dogs cry in shame. Oh gawd, how am I supposed to resist this silent evil?

"No... No... Those aren't going to work on me."

"Don't say that... You know you're caving."

I officially hate Licca's ability to read minds.

"I am not caving, not now not ever."

"Pretty please~~~~" Looking into her eyes, I gave in to her in 5 seconds.

Yeah go ahead and laugh, it was pathetic.

"Fine. Today only, you got that?"

"Thank you so much!" Hugging me and squeezing me, my only consolation prize was that I was getting a hug.

Totally awesome.

"And while you're enjoying the hug, I got to see your eyes for 5 whole seconds." Licca whispered into my ear.

"Goodbye Licca." I growled, utterly defeated, pulling out my father's old aviator sunglasses.

"You carry more than one?" Licca said, eyebrows raised.

"Of course, just in case someone wanted to borrow them and not return them anytime soon."

"I'll return it by the end of today! I promise!"

"Of course. And until then..." I replied, tapping the current pair I was wearing to illustrate my point.

Leaving Licca to fawn over her latest acquisition, I headed down to the lobby and started up one of the terminals suddenly noticing a blinking icon on the sidebar. "Huh? Mail?" Opening several of the flashing icons, I was surprised to find that the Norn database actually had a mailing system that was used to communicate with other members. Most of the mail was old and outdated while the most recent mail I received was from Ash... A forwarded mail of my temporary transfer to Europe... So he knew.

Running through the random welcome notices I couldn't help but notice my latest e-mail.

"Hmmm... Kanon sent me an e-mail?" Opening it with the push of a button, my jaw slackened in horror at what I was reading, "Since when did I become her mother?" I muttered angrily to myself.

Sending a scathing reply and a request for her to check her sender, I synced my iPod to the terminal so that any future mail would go straight to me and save me the bother of constantly checking the terminals.

Grabbing the mic downstairs, Hibari didn't sound happy, "Recruit Ash Shikigami, report to the lobby immediately or severe punishment will be dealt. I repeat, report to the lobby immediately or severe punishment will be dealt by your commanding officer."

Oh what the heck, here's to being random.

Taking the mic from Hibari, I couldn't help but grin at what I was about to say, "And the punishment is, a spanking from Tsubaki!"

Walking off before Hibari could grab me and throttle me, Sakuya started waving at me.

"Hey! This way! This way!" Hmm? I swear, if Ash touched her ass too...

"You're exceeding expectations, they can't praise you enough!"

Oh ok, no ass touching. But what's this about?

Before I could inquire further, Sakuya's face fell, "But uh, try not to overdo it ok? The greatest God Eaters... Tend to die young."

Something tells me Tom and Eric weren't great God Eaters.

"Meaning I've got a long life ahead of me, is that what you're saying?" Lindow said, making an appearance from the stairs, with Ash tagging along behind him.

Giggling at Lindow's snazzy comment, "Keeping executive hours as usual?"

"Sure, because I'm an executive. Another day of fun work guys!"

Nodding at all of us, he continued, "It'll be the four of us today, I'll take the lead, Sakuya, you're the backup."

Turning to address us both, Lindow gave us a warm smile, "And you're the commandos. Show us what a New Type can do, remember your training."

Getting a beep from his handphone, Lindow made a quick check until Sakuya brought him back to Earth, "Anything else?"

"Well um..." You could almost see the concentration wrinkle on this guy's forehead, "Don't die alright?"

Sakuya was naturally quick on the uptake, "Thank you for your very thorough orders, big boss!"

Ok, the way she said that "big boss" she clearly has a thing for him.

Following Lindow and Sakuya to the God Arc storage area, Licca was there as always to release our God Arcs.

Watching as Lindow's, Sakuya's and Ash's God Arcs made their appearance, a sudden question struck me, "Uhhhh Licca? Where's my God Arc?"

"Oh Ragner! I'm so sorry! Your God Arc is currently under repair, the shield system showed an error yesterday during a routine check so I had to lock it down for repairs. You won't be able to go on any missions.

Awesome. Fate just screwed me over.

Bidding farewell to the others who had "functional" God Arcs, I slumped my shoulders as I dragged my feet back into the den.

"Hey Ragner wait up!"

Who is it now... Can't you let me wallow in my self pity in peace?

Turning with a sigh, I watched as Licca jogged out of the God Arc storage area after me.

"Oh... What is it Licca." I muttered as I continued my slow walk back into what would almost be a day in hell.

"Hey cheer up! There's always a silver lining to every situation!"

"Ash is out winning brownie points with practically the key members of the first unit and I'm stuck here doing office work. Wait this place doesn't even HAVE office work! Awesome, I'm stuck here doing nothing."

"Cheer up... You have me."

As blood rushed to my face, I looked away before replying, "Th-Thanks, I needed that."

"Hmmm? Is that a blush I see?"

"O-Of course not! Not when you're playing me like that."

Oh shit that just slipped out.

"Playing you? You think I'm just stringing you along?"

I. Am. Screwed.

"No that's not what I meant! I..."

"Fine, if you see me trying to cheer you up like that then fine! At least I know I don't have to try next time!" Licca snapped, storming off.

I guess this would make it the second time I screwed my chances? Great now I really have nothing to do.

"Ragner! What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be on a mission?" Tsubaki said, walking out of the lift, her clipboard tucked under her arm.

"Sorry ma'am, my God Arc's under maintenance, some problem with the shielding unit."

"I see... That is a shame, because you can't do any simulator training either. Dr Sakaki is having a few lectures with some new recruits later, feel free to join them if you need a refresher course on anything you've learned."

"Yes ma'am. Thank you." I said curtly, nodding before going down the stairs to the reception area.

Maybe I'll see if Licca's in, try and apologise.

Heading over to Licca's room, I knocked twice on the door before stepping back, straightening out my shirt as I waited.

"Who is it?" I hear Licca call out.

"It's Ragner. I'm just here to say..."

"Go away."

"Sorry, I.."

"Go away unless you want me to crush your glasses!"

Time to go.

High tailing it out of there, (that pair is one of a kind) I had nothing left to do but head but head back to my room and continue working on my earlier project. Fixing the magnet in and connecting it to the power source, the only thing left to do was test it out.

That's cool and all, but where in this building am I supposed to test out a freaking grappling hook? This thing was designed for outdoor use for crying out loud.

Heading to the God Arc storage area, I started looking around for high beams or ventilation ducts, anything I could use to try my latest creation out.

Randomly picking one of the cross beams, I quickly checked that I had enough string in the roll before calculating the angle and activating the magnet.

What happened next, was the most awesome moment of my life.

The five claws shit out and wrapped around the beam as planned, and reeled me in. As I shot up to the beam, I noticed I had made a fatal mistake.

The five claws had wrapped around the beam and each other, making several intricate knots that I had no way to undo. The hydraulics I had installed into the claws themselves to unwind themselves from the beam were now rendered useless. And I didn't have enough foresight to include a manual eject system.

Now I look like a spiderman wannabe, hanging from a beam until someone helps me down. Man, who am I kidding? Who exactly walks around the God Arc storage area looking for people hanging from the beams? I'm gonna be stuck here for...

"Ragner? What are you doing up there?"

Salvation!

Turning to look down at my savior, it was none other than Gina tilting her head and looking up at me like I was on display.

Oh my goodness, if I thought the view from the front was good, wait till you guys try the view from way above her on for size! It. Is. Heaven.

"Ummm well, I was trying a new invention and it didn't really work the way I intended it to."

"Really? In what way? Was it not supposed to drag you up there or was that part intended?"

I swear she's enjoying this.

"If you think I'm enjoying this yes I am. I'm sure you're enjoying the view of my chest from up there so I'm quite sure we're even."

"You're actually admitting that you're wearing a top that shows almost everything just so people would look?"

"No, it's the only top I have and the costume designers are morons."

"What?"

"Yeah duh, I can just change my outfit if I don't like it. So how do you plan to get down from there? Although the view is nice, it's kinda void when I walk off. Or are you trying to set some kind of record for longest hang time?" she said, giggling at her own pun.

"Yeah, if you could get me down I would really appreciate it."

"Hmm, I'm not sure I can, but I know someone who does." Gina said as she walked off, "Gimme a sec while I go fetch her."

Her? Oh no if she's calling who I think she's calling...

"Wait Gina! I think I can handle this myself!"

Too late, she's gone.

Resigning myself to my fate, I calmly waited (well, as calmly as one can be while hanging by one hand) for Gina to return with the engineer that helped me get up here in the first place.

"Licca..." I muttered as the grey haired engineer followed Gina with a sardonic smirk on her face.

"Hi Ragner. Need my help I see." Licca sneered.

"Look, I said I was sorry."

"And that's the only reason I'm here. If you had just walked off I would have told Gina to leave you here to stew for a few hours. I understand you were enjoying the view up there?"

"She told you that? Aw c'mon..."

"She didn't actually, you just did."

Today is turning out to be the worst day ever.

"Gina, get your God Arc, we're shooting him down."

"Got it."

As Gina walked into one of the nearby storehouses, Licca called out, "And for looking at hers I'm not putting anything soft below you."

Shit she's vindictive! Well... Time for plan B, gotta make this look convincing.

What everyone else didn't know, is that the latch that locks me up here has already loosened, a good tug should release me until the end of the wires that are currently tied around the beam. If I release it at the right timing... It should make it look like Gina shot me all the way down.

"Back, would any shot do or would fire be the best bet?"

"Go with fire, I'm sure Ragner doesn't like getting shot at, he'll have plenty of time to experience that with Kanon."

Taking careful aim, Gina shot a flame laser, right at the point joining my hand to the beam with pinpoint accuracy.

Here goes nothing.

As soon as Gina's finger started to squeeze the trigger, I jerked my hand to test the strength of the wire and loosen the latch, the laser singeing the wire. Feeling the bottomless pit sensation as I was launched into freefall, there was a minute jerk as I reached the end of my tether accompanied by the snapping of the cable resulting in another four meter drop that would have given me a sprain ankle at the minimum if I hadn't rolled out of the drop.

"Nice one Ragner, I was so sure you'd be hurt from a fall that high without anything to cushion your fall. Licca, wasn't there anything you could use to place under Ragner?" Gina asked, moving to return her God Arc.

"Must've slipped my mind." Licca said with a shrug.

Like hell it did.

As soon as Gina had left, I desperately looked at Licca, "Please, can you forgive me for everything that I've done? Please?"

I seriously fear for my life here.

"Hmmm. Let me think about it..." Licca said with a playful smile as she walked off, stopping to turn and ask, "Are you coming?"

"Uh, yeah!" I hastily replied, checking the remains of my grappling hook and running after Licca.

"Nice job with the fall by the way, you totally rolled off the mat I left to ease your fall." Licca said, nudging me in the ribs.

"Yeah right, there was no mat!" I yelled back.

"Oh? What's this?" Licca asked faking a tone of surprise as she picked up what had been nothing a few seconds before suddenly appeared as a mat that had the same pattern as the tiles underneath it.

"No fair! That's just cheating!"

"Nope! Just because you didn't see it..."

"Even Gina the top sniper didn't see it!"

"I'm so evil..." Licca snickered to herself, rolling up the mat and tucking it under her arm.

"I'm not talking to you ever again."

"Now look who's overreacting? Can't you find it in yourself to forgive me?" Licca shot back.

When I didn't reply continued walking, Licca stopped me and gave me a wide eyed face I could only assume was her puppy dog look.

"Oh no. Oh no no no no, I'm not falling for that, never in a million years." I said, trying to look away before I folded like a cheap umbrella.

That face is so cute! It just makes me wanna... No! Stop thinking like that! To cave is to lose! You're supposed to be mad at her! Stay strong!

"Ragner... Please...?" Licca whined, shuffling into my vision again.

Stay away from me. You're bad for my resolve!

"Uhhh n-no..." I stammer, trying to avert my eyes again.

"Do you mean that..?" Licca asked, looking like she was on the verge of tears.

Fake tears! They are so fake! I just know it!

"Ok ok I forgive you! Gawd get away from me!" I yelled, turning away for good and starting to sulk.

"Yay!" Licca squealed, leaping out and hugging me from behind.

"Are you mad still...?"

"What do you think?"

"I promise I'll make it up to you okay?"

"Something tells me that I'm going to be losing every argument I have with you from now on." I muttered, still sulking.

"C'mon... Don't be a spoilsport..." Licca said happily, sliding her arm around mine and hugging close to me.

I swear, my heart rate just doubled.

"I-if you say so..." I mumbled, trying to get my heart rate down lest the girl next to me notices.

"Hmm? Ragner? Is there something wrong?"

"Uhh, not at all! Just have to salvage this and get it off my hand." I replied, indicating the grappling hook still attached to my right hand.

"Oh, ok. Meet you later then?"

"Sure. Call me when you're ready."

Bidding Licca farewell, I quickly headed back to my room, while my heartbeat was easily exceeding 140 beats per minute.

Shutting the door behind me, I made a few alterations to my design, a three pronged hook from the back of my hand instead of five hooks.

Removing the grappling hook and putting it aside for another day, I started working on putting all the upgrades that my Ray Ban glasses had onto the aviator sunglasses when my terminal pinged.

"HELLO RAGNER!" Licca yelled from my terminal, causing me to fall off my chair, for the second time today.

"Hello? Ragner?" Licca said, looking around on the screen, no doubt trying to locate me.

"Ah! There you are! Why're you lying on the floor? Is there something wrong with the bed...?"

"Adjust the volume on your end dumbass!" I yelled, throwing my screwdriver at the camera, giving her a fright as well.

"Hey! Throwing things isn't nice! You could damage the terminal!"

Standing and dusting my hands off as I headed over to the terminal, I replied, "And blasting max volume in someones ears is as well. How'd you access my terminal anyway?"

"You shouldn't leave your passwords on such insecure objects." Licca taunted, waving my glasses in front of the screen.

"It is secure! Secure on my face! And the glasses were password protected as well!"

"Well... I'm in your files! And wow there are so many personal records..."

Killing the terminal, I quickly revolted it and started methodically deleting all diary entries that I had saved, courtesy of my iPod syncing EVERYTHING.

As my terminal pinged again from a call from Licca, I absentmindedly pressed to accept as I supervised the deletion.

"Hey Ragner what happened? The call was suddenly cut."

"Oh yeah, I think there are some connection issues, I don't think the terminals are meant to be used as video telephones."

"They are! Hey! What happened to all your files?"

"What? They're still there aren't there? Hold on, lemme check." I said, watching the delete bar go through the 90 percentile.

"What the hell? Why are half my files missing?" I yelled, faking anger, "Licca, just what have you been doing?"

"It's not me! The files have been deleted!"

That's right readers, when being defensive doesn't work, a good solid offensive does the trick.

"Did you give my password out?"

"No! I..."

"Nevermind, I have backups elsewhere. So all isn't lost."

"Where? I wanna read!"

"Never. I'm never telling you."

"Please..."

"Are you done with my glasses?"

"Yeah, I..."

"Cool, I'll come pick them up now."

Shutting off the terminal before Licca could question me any further, I locked my terminal under a new password before heading over to Licca's room.

I am now going to enter the belly of the beast.

Knocking on the door, the thundering footsteps should have been the signal to run away, but as I turned to run, Licca slammed open the door and grabbed me before locking the door behind me.

"Licca..?" I whispered, before being slammed on her bed.

Is this the day?

"Shut up." Licca said.

Oh my goodness it is isn't it?

"I'm busy trying to figure out what happened." Licca snapped, staring at her terminal screen.

You all have just been PUNKED!

"Licca..."

"What the... The terminal's been locked!"

Rounding on me like an animal who's just been forced to skip dinner, Licca wagged her finger at me as she walked around the bed to confront me, "You locked it! Let me in!"

"In the interest of security, I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because only one person should have access to those files."

"I'm close enough to you aren't I?"

"Well because of you the files are gone."

"Are not!"

"Are too."

"Are NOT!"

This is so childish... Yet it's so fun...

"Still not giving you the password."

"Please?"

"No."

"Pretty please?"

Do I LOOK pretty?

"Never, I will protect those files with my life."

"What's on them?"

"Personal stuff."

Damn she's pushy.

"Can you tell me?"

"If we become close enough sure."

"Aren't we already?"

"I dunno, are we?"

I love playing dumb.

"Well, you're in a locked room, on my bed, and I'm right next to you. How much closer do you want to be?"

"I mean closer emotionally, not physically."

"Aww. Guess I can't force this one out of you huh?"

"Nope and your... Oh gawd no! No! No!" I yelled, as Licca lied down next to me, staring at me with her puppy dog eyes.

"Ragner..." she whispered, "This face is pretty hard to maintain..."

What would you do?

Bursting out in laughter, I earned a playful punch from Licca as she stopped pulling her funny face finally admitting defeat.

I have triumphed over the puppy dog eyes!

"Ragner..." Licca muttered, turning to me, pausing when we were nearly face to face.

"Ummm... Licca...?" I whispered back, our faces so close I nearly had to go cross eyed just to focus.

As she closed her eyes and started to get closer, a million thoughts started to run through my head, what about before? Why did she stop me? Why is she doing it now? Should I go for it? Am I taking advantage of her? Is this too fast? I'm hungry, what's for dinner?

Before I could think anymore, her lips met mine and I was caught, wide eyed in a kiss with Licca. It was... Nice... She tasted like strawberry. Is that her lip gloss? Melting in and going with the flow, time stood still for us, as that simple kiss, held us together. It was better than anything I've ever felt, hell in a post apocalyptic world, I would have never thought I'd get with a girl. But here I am, with Licca.

Breaking apart after several seconds, Licca and I just looked into each others eyes, our faces redder than tomatoes.

"Did we just...?" she whispered, face going even redder.

"I think we did..."

"Oh..." she whispered, turning away for a second before looking at me again.

"I thought... You weren't ready yet?" I whispered, holding her hand in mine in case she freaked out.

"That time was just so sudden... Now... Oh my goodness I can't stop thinking about it..."

"Wanna try again?"

"Don't push your luck." Licca warned, her face slowly returning back to normal.

"Just thought I'd ask..."

"Oh to hell with it." she whispered as she smashed her lips in a more passionate kiss this time, taking me by surprise for the second time.

A few seconds later, we both pulled back again, this time both of us hugging as we simply enjoyed each others company.

"Ragner?"

"Yeah?"

"Why do you like me?"

Wow that's a really loaded question.

"I didn't at first, to me you were just an engineer when I came in, I guess as you started helping me, and as I got to know you better, I just... Wanted to spend more and more time with you... And here I am. What about you?"

"Well... The first time I saw you, the very first time. I just thought you were cute, when you tried to be strong after Tom died. I just knew you were shaken and didn't want to show it, while everyone else thought you were coping with it. I guess seeing that side of you and knowing only I saw that side of you just made me feel special."

"I'm curious though... Do you help everyone the way you helped me or did you give me special treatment?"

"I definitely don't go to the lengths of helping other people like how I helped you. Or I'd be way too busy to even talk to people. You're just... Special in some way to me."

Holding her even closer to me and earning a squeal of surprise from Licca, I leaned in close to her left ear and whispered, "You wanted to know what was on those files right?"

"It's not that important, if you don't want to say..."

"It's just me putting how I feel about you into words. That and plans for the date and stuff like that."

"Oh... That's so sweet..." she purred, wrapping her arms around me as well, "Well I'm not really disappointed that they're gone... After all, I can count on you to be with me from now on right?"

"Definitely."

Lying there for what seemed like only a few minutes, a ring from Licca's handphone broke the silence.

"Wow we've been lying here for half an hour, Lindow and his team just got back. I gotta go service their God Arcs. Catch you later ok?" Licca said, kissing me on the cheek as she ran out.

Crap I forgot to get my glasses back.

Waiting for a few minutes before leaving Licca's room, I had only made it to the foyer before I heard someone call my name.

"Hey Ragner! Can I have a word with you?" Sakuya asked, waving at me as I walked over.

"Uhhh, sure. Do you want to talk here? Or..."

Looking around at the other people in the reception area, civilian and God Eater alike, Sakuya nodded before replying, "Let's take this to the Veteran corridor then."

Though the lift ride was short, it felt like eternity before we actually reached our destination. Why, I had no idea. It could be the butterfly feeling in my stomach that was a clear indicator of anxiety. Why was I scared? Am I in trouble?

"Ragner, relax. It's about the day Ash called me. I asked him who I was supposed to treat and he gave me your name."

That guy is SO DEAD.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"He told me that the injuries were quite extensive. Why didn't you show up for treatment?"

"The injuries were minimal. Medical attention could wait, I had another mission to attend to."

"Regulation states that after a mission, a six hour minimum rest period must be observed. What mission did you have to leave so urgently for that you could not seek medical attention before the six hours were over?"

I couldn't help but recall Ash's reverse ass whooping speech and grin at this point.

"This isn't funny Ragner!"

"Personal mission not issued by Fenrir. As my injuries were not that extensive, I completed the mission with no problems."

"Personal missions are not allowed. You could be logged with an infraction."

"I trust you won't report me?"

"You assume too much. Do not do something so foolhardy again."

"I'll try."

"Don't try. Don't ever do something so rash again. From Ash's description of your injuries, you had a deep laceration on your arm and a large blunt force trauma on your back. With those injuries you should be barely able to walk, let alone fight. How did you manage that? You would have just been a liability to whatever mission you left on."

"I'm guessing you just want to know the secret to my success?"

"No amount of recovery pills or bullets would help you heal in time, and they have no effect on any pain you feel."

"Well, by taking the painkiller Codeine..."

"Codeine may be readily available over the counter here, but that's because it's one of the weakest opiates in stock! It would barely block the pain you were feeling."

"Ash slapped me on the back. If he recalled that I can assure you, I didn't make a sound."

"That doesn't explain how you managed to mask the pain. Codeine is not the answer."

"Of course it isn't. However, mixed with a bit of Ogretail blood..."

"You mixed narcotics with Aragami remains? How many infractions do you want to get slapped with?"

"Hey it worked."

"That's not the point! Have you even read a copy of the rulebook?"

"Well... For me, as long as it works, what's the problem? I'm careful. Promise."

Ending the conversation there, I quickly ran off before Sakuya could come up with a reply.

Returning to my room, I slowly shut the door before running the diagnostics I didn't get to do before on my glasses. Once everything checked out, I started the OS and tested a few of the programs before placing it on standby and focusing on my latest (albeit broken) project.

"Ok if I remove the claws and place a three pronged hook on the back..." I muttered to myself thinking aloud until my vision went totally black.

"Guess who!" a bubbly voice that I instantly recognized giggled behind me.

"Uhhhh... Let me think..." I said, stalling for time as I reached behind for my captor's weak spot, her ribs.

Tickling them over and over, my vision slowly returned as Licca giggled and laughed under my relentless assault, finally retreating to a safe distance out of my reach.

"I guess Licca!" I said, turning around and getting out of my chair and looking at the girl in question.

"You cheated!" Licca said, pulling a pouty face and crossing her arms.

"You never said I couldn't do that."

"True... But..."

"But what?"

"But that's not playing fair... Eeee!" Licca said, ending in a shriek as I started tickling her again.

"Ragner! St-stop! Eeheeeheeeheeee!"

"What's the magic word?"

"P-please! Hahahahahahaha!" Licca laughed, finally ending with a sigh when I released her.

"You're so mean... I was just here to return your glasses..."

Taking the glasses back from her and putting it on the table I walked her to the door, "Thanks for returning them."

"Thanks for lending them", she replied, "May I see your eyes again...?"

"Maybe another time hmm?" I whispered, gently giving her a kiss on her forehead.

"I'll hold you to that." she replied, grinning, "Just think about me every time you wear those glasses ok?"

Feeling her hold me tenderly in her arms, I couldn't help but smile as I replied, "I'll try."

-End of chapter -


	8. Life in the Concrete Jungle

Life in the concrete jungle

Waking up after a good night's rest, I quickly headed to the Rookie level bathroom to freshen up before returning to my room and making a call to Licca using my terminal.

Returning to my work bench to put the finishing touches on the grappling hook version 2.0 that I was working on last night, I looked back at the terminal when it rang, indicating the call had been connected. Treated to a screen focused on Licca in fluffy pink pajamas I couldn't stop in my grin which Licca caught as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, "Stop smiling Ragner!"

"But you look so cute in those! Like a cute wittle bunny!"

"Ugh! This is why I hate morning calls! Goodbye Ragner!"

"Wait wait! Wanna have breakfast together before I go out on that mission with Lindow?"

"I guess that would be alright, meet you down there in ten?"

"It's a date, see you later then."

"Gawd, it's just breakfast..." Licca muttered as she cut the call.

Compacting my grappling hook to fit on the palm of my hand, I left my room ready to meet Licca for breakfast. Standing on the balcony overlooking the reception area, while I was waiting for Licca, Ash arrived with a happy lopsided grin on his face.

Whatever is keeping him happy, I really gotta get some, seriously, who stays happy like him in a world on the brink of destruction?

Joining me at the balcony, Ash was naturally first to break the silence, "I'm bored."

You come to me for that? What do I look like? An entertainment system?

Turning to him I simply glanced at him before turning my head forward again, returning to my thoughts prior to Ash's proclamation of boredom.

"I'm bored." Ash whined, a little louder this time.

Turning to him to give him a piece of my mind I cut my sentence even before it came out and settled for a glare from behind my shades, a glare that I'm sure he wouldn't notice before turning back.

Next thing I know, this idiot's tugging my damn jacket repeating the same statement he's repeated twice, "I'm bored."

Fine, you want entertainment? Here goes.

Turning towards Ash, I pushed my shades even higher up my nose as I mentally recalled every aspect of his personality that I had ever seen and put it into the most out of character thing I would ever do (probably for my entire lifetime).

"Woooo! I touched Hibari's ass and it felt awesome!" I screamed in a near perfect imitation of Ash's voice, following his eye line to Hibari's semi exposed top until he realized what I just did.

"Shikigami!" Hibari screamed from behind the desk, slamming her hand down on said desk, making Ash jump in shock.

Running for the stairwell, Ash disappeared so fast I swear, if the floor was made of a flammable material Ash would have left a fire trail.

Watching as Hibari leaped over the counter, chasing Ash and yelling a dictionaries worth of expletives, I couldn't help but grin as Licca walked into the lower lobby, wearing her usual work outfit looking around for me before heading up the stairs. Going down the other set off stairs and running around the counter to sneak up behind Licca, I quickly grabbed Licca by her midsection while covering her eyes. "Guess who."I whispered into her ear, eliciting a gasp in response before the smile on her face turned into a mischievous grin.

"Tatsumi! Stop playing this game!" Licca said haughtily, stamping her foot to comically imitate anger.

"It's not Tatsumi! It's..." Before I could finish Licca had turned around and pulled off my glasses and planted a kiss on my cheek turning me redder than last night's tomato juice.

"Gotcha Ragner!" Licca said teasingly as she took another look at my left eye before putting my glasses back on for me and messing with my hair. Pulling her goggles down over her eyes as my own petty revenge, Licca giggled while faking an annoyed look in my direction as we headed down to the cafeteria.

Leaving the cafeteria after a rather uneventful meal with a little small talk, Licca and I were treated to two blurs rushing past as we walked out, two blurs that looked startling similar to Ash and Hibari.

"What are they...?"

"No clue, c'mon let's go before they come around again." I quickly replied taking Licca's hand and dashing off.

Seeing as we had some time to spare before my mission, Licca and I grabbed a few cans of soda from the vending machine and started watching a movie from the terminal that now acted like a projector. It was quite fun and Licca even cringed and cuddled closer during some of the scary bits.

Standing up and stretching after the movie, Licca did a quick check off her watch before heading off to work after a quick kiss goodbye. Giving her a few minutes head start, I made my way down to the lobby as well, grappling hook safely tucked away in my pocket.

"Glad to see you could make it." Lindow said, smiling as I arrived a few minutes late.

"Ready to head out?" he asked, nodding to the door, Soma glaring at me while Ash continued to try to prove his manliness to Sakura behind him.

"Ready as I'll ever be." I replied, putting on my earphones and plugging it into my iPod.

Taking us out to the god arc storage area, I winked at Licca and got a small wave, the only pleasantries we shared before heading out to the Old City.

"Hey! It's another great day to work! Return to base safe and sound! That is all!"

Most informative briefing from the great Lindow!

"Huh? That's it?" Kota asked, not quite understanding the lack of a proper briefing.

"You won't last very long of you keep questioning him like that." Sakuya whispered.

"What a drag..." Soma muttered.

"Glad to see that with the exception of two of us, our souls are all connected." Lindow said, smirking in Ash's and my direction.

"Hey man what gives! Stop staring!" Ash yelled.

"Whatever." I growl, lifting my God Arc and resting it on my shoulder.

"I'm kidding take it easy." Lindow laughs, waving his hand, "This is the first five person mission this team has performed. Just do what you always do."

"Huh? What about you Lindow?" Kota asks.

Obviously this moron had skipped out on teamwork 101. If the order isn't unethical or stupid, never question a senior officer.

"Well you see... I've been asked on a secret date right after this." Lindow answers, pulling out his handphone for dramatic effect.

Pointing my glasses at Lindow's handphone, I notice that he isn't checking his messages but instead he's using... A tracker program?

"And if I don't get there soon my date will get mad and leave! Talk about impatient!" This guy's acting more suspicious than a shoplifter at the mall.

"Well I'm taking off now guys, my orders are the usual: don't die, make sure you come back alive."

"They're your own orders, make sure you follow them yourself."

Is it just me, or was that an expression of concern from Soma?

"Try not to stay out too late Lindow, ok?" Sakuya said, her eyes practically screaming her concern. As Lindow walked off, I took note of the direction that he was heading before turning back in time to hear Sakuya hop off the ledge with a, "Let's go!"

As Ash and the others followed suit, I clenched my stomach and faked a grimace of pain, "Uhhh you guys go ahead, I gotta take a dump."

"Alright, don't take too long." Sakuya yelled up to me.

"I'll try!" I replied, before following Lindow's footsteps to the Sunken City.

With the modifications Licca did to my sunglasses, I was slightly wary about updating the system on them in case the update removed any beneficial programs that Licca had installed. With no other choice, I folded my sunglasses and put on the aviator pair I was carrying, the latest update including a mini heads up display showing my God Arc's oracle point charge indicated by a small bar at the top left hand corner.

On the way to the Sunken Ruins, I swear Lindow knew I was tailing him. I may have ducked around the corner and hid when he turned around, but I could've sworn I saw him smile as he continued walking off. Stopping by the mission start point for a smoke, a roar echoed through the whole area, followed by the ground shaking as what could only be footsteps started crashing around the area.

Tossing his cigarette away, Lindow picked up his God Arc and just before leaping off the ledge he said, "Stay here rookie." Ok now I KNOW he saw me. Moving out of my hiding spot to get a closer look, my glassed registered the giant moving lump as an aragami immediately and started a search through the database. "Ouroboros?" I gasped when the result flashed across the lens, displaying weak spots and statistics, "Lindow's taking one on alone?"

Before I could even from another thought, a yell of pain came out from the valley below.

"Lindow?" I screamed, leaping off the ledge and heading to the source of the cry.

Reaching Lindow and nearly out of stamina, I took in the whole situation in a single glance, Lindow was on one knee nearly out for the count and the enraged Ouroboros was no different. As it raised it's limbs one more time to deal a finishing blow, I had to act fast, with my stamina in this state, I'll never reach Lindow in time. My heart was pounding and I was out of breath so shooting the Ouroboros now would send me flying back from my God Arc's recoil. Feeling a familiar lump in my pocket, I quickly pulled out the grappling hook and slipped it onto my right hand, the hook itself engaging onto my hand and linking with my glasses wirelessly with a series of metallic clicks.

Pointing the hook at Lindow as the Ouroboros swung its limbs down, I quickly performed the necessary calculations like wind and trajectory before activating the pneumatic clamps sending the hook flying towards Lindow, in my hurry to shoot the hook, I had skipped the power I needed to shoot the hook with bland just went with maximum power. As the ends of the hook bonded to Lindow's jacket, the excess momentum the hook had threw Lindow forward, out of the limbs way and right into the Ouroboros itself.

Well, unexpected results, but accomplished objectives.

Blinking at the icon to reel in the hook, Lindow shot backwards again like a rag doll, sprawling a few feet behind me as I disengaged the hook. Shaking his head as he got up, Lindow looked at me with a lopsided grin, "Thanks for that rookie, but please don't ever do that again."

"Sorry, I skipped a few calculations in my rush to SAVE YOUR SORRY ASS." I growled, turning my attention back to the hundred ton monstrosity in front of me.

"Much appreciated rookie, let's just finish this off and get back huh?" Lindow said, cocking his head at the Ouroboros.

Roaring at the arrival of a new enemy, the Ouroboros tilted its head back and pointed its eyes at us. "Look out!" Lindow yelled, bringing his shield up. Turning and raising my buckler as well, the Ouroboros shot a beam of light from its eyes that caused Lindow to slide back from the impact. Lindow's shield managed to save him from most of the damage, once the beam hit me and my buckler, I was sent flying back the beam also hitting my head and shattering my glasses.

Getting up slowly with blood in my mouth, I quickly spat it out before pulling out the glasses that Licca modified while muttering, "Ow."

Loading up my glasses' OS, I noticed that the changes Licca had made to my glasses were actually more advanced than the ones I had made. The oracle point charge now not only represented by a bar, but a number representing the total charge and the charge I had left. A full body layout that tracked my vital signs and showed which part of my body was injured.

Giving her a silent thanks and promising to check the other functions later, I quickly started up a quick beat song on my iPod before running to it's right flank, slashing it's limb with my God Arc in a dagger grip as I ran past.

How the hell do you hurt a thing like this? It's so freaking huge!

"Rookie! Gets its back I'll take it from the front!" Lindow yelled.

Taking a few minutes to run around the giant lump, I took a look at its tail and had an idea. Before Lindow could stop me, I had started running up the tail and onto the Ouroboros itself.

"Rookie! What are you..." Not letting him complete his sentence, I started hacking and slashing away at the area around what I assumed was its head earning a roar for my efforts. Leaping into the air and slicing its many eyes, Lindow noticed me changing to gun mode while standing on the Ouroboros.

"Don't bother rookie, the Ouroboros is too heavily armored."

Nodding in acknowledgement, I stuck my God Arc's barrel into the Ouroboros itself and fired a few mortar rounds.

In your face you stupid lump of flesh.

Roaring in pain, the Ouroboros finally died, collapsing on its limbs and landing with a resounding crash with me still on it. Falling after losing my balance, I pointed my grappling hook at a nearby building and fired, grabbing onto the wire once the hook attached. Flying by Lindow as he gave me a "Not bad" look, I didn't take into consideration the direction I was going to fly and turned my head and got a face full of wall.

Awesome moment nullified in face of... My face being hurt.

Standing up and shaking my head as Lindow laughed, I sighed as I walked up to the Ouroboros, "Are you gonna extract the core or what?"

"Already done rookie, it's your turn to take a bite, you've earned it."

Sending my God Arc into devour mode, I quickly took a large chunk out of the Ouroboros, my God Arc light flashing when it received the pieces. "Right rookie, let's head back, Sakuya might be waiting for us."

"That and you really want a beer." I said while smirking.

"You read my mind."

Reaching the den and returning our God Arc's I stayed back and waved at Lindow, signaling him to go ahead while I talked to Licca. "So... Did you like the upgrade?" Licca said, giving me a badly suppressed grin.

"I haven't even had time to check them all out yet." "Oh you will. And really, an Ouroboros? I thought your mission was for a Kongou and a few Zygotes?"

"Wait, how'd you know I was..."

"One of the things I installed on your glasses, is a real time situational awareness program, basically, I get all the information about your current situation as feedback on my personal computer."

"Remind me to deactivate that program once I find it."

"Oooh doing something illegal? Or just something you don't want me to see."

"Well, seeing as Ash took a tour of the women's changing room, I thought I'd..."

"I'm insulted Ragner! I thought we had..."

"Just kidding!" I said, interrupting her with a quick peck on the cheek before joining Lindow in the lobby.

"Rookie! C'mon! Have a beer!" Lindow said, lounging in the couch that faced the door to the den. Sitting down and opening the offered beer, I took a few sips when Lindow got right down to business, "So rookie, why'd you follow me today?"

"You were acting suspiciously. You know Sakuya's got a thing for you and you go out on "Dates"? Highly suspicious. I'm surprised she let you."

Laughing at my response, Lindow took a few gulps before replying, "Yeah sure. Just don't tell her we were out fighting an Ouroboros okay? It'll be or secret."

"Only if you can explain to her why I was absent on her mission, I doubt she'll spring for a "We went on a double date." excuse."

"Leave her to me. Ah speak of he devil." Lindow said as the den doors opened revealing Sakuya's squad.

"So you made it back early, good work today!" Sakuya said, taking a few steps ahead of everyone to Lindow.

"Yeah I managed to wrap things up early, ran into Ragner on the way back. How'd you guys do?"

"As per your command, the same as usual." Soma growled, looking away.

"Right, we fulfilled our mission and didn't lose anyone." Sakuya said, attempting to lessen the impact of Soma's rudeness.

"You should have seen us! We were so tight!" Kota added, waving his arms about.

"I don't recall you being of much use." Soma snapped back, cutting Kota to size.

"Is that right? Well I guess it wouldn't hurt to go on more dates in the future." Lindow said, leaning back even further, if that was even possible.

"Aren't you supposed to hook me up with some girls first?" Kota said, walking forward to Lindow and pouting.

"Heh, yeah right. Like you'd be able to handle a girl." Lindow replied with a smirk.

Was that a frown I saw flash across Sakuya's face? Wow hidden issues.

"Staff announcement. Earlier today, the 7th unit successfully detached the core of an Ouroboros. All engineers please report to lab no. 5. I repeat, all engineers please report to lab no. 5." As Licca walked by with another engineer, she gave me a smile and a small wave while she walked by. I winked back, once I did that, I instantly regretted it, I mean, who sees a wink behind sunglasses?

"I saw it don't worry." the words scrolling across my eyes said.

What the?

"Neat huh? Now I can contact you directly." Licca typed.

Another function to uninstall.

"What's an Ouroboros? Is it powerful?" Kota asked, fidgeting a little.

As I looked to Lindow to flash him a grin, he gave me an all knowing smile and nodded for me to keep quiet.

"It'll pop up if you search the terminal, do your homework once in a while." Soma growled at Kota.

"Well I uhh, really don't think the four of us are ready to take one on yet." Sakuya said sheepishly.

"Are you serious? Not even a team like ours?" Kota exclaimed.

"One or two casualties. Definitely." Soma muttered.

"Hey, come on. If we can survive somehow, we'll get it one of these days. Don't worry about that now. Just focus on staying alive." Lindow said, a failed attempt to cheer Kota up.

"You know that line is getting really old." Soma said dangerously, glaring at Lindow.

"Yeah, I'll say it to you till I'm blue in the face. You'd probably head off to your own death if I wasn't watching." Lindow replied, returning Soma's glare.

"Damn you... Shut up." was Soma's only reply, having lost the stare down.

"Oh yes sir! I've got another date coming up, so I'm going for a hearty meal."

Walking off to the cafeteria, I nodded at Ash before taking my leave as well. Sitting in one of the corner seats, I was free to observe the entire place from my vantage point and also free to observe my latest acquisition, a piece of moss that seemed to move by itself when put under light. Why am I not doing this in my room? Because the last person I want to find this, is Licca.

Watching the moss, mesmerized as it shifted and squirmed under the light, I was about to start a scan when I shadow of a person stopped the moss from moving. Glaring up at the source I was not surprised to find that it was Karel and Shun.

"Watcha got there rookie?" Karel asked immediately, just as crass as ever.

"Nothing." I snapped back, stowing the moss away before he could make a grab for it.

"C'mon rookie don't be so stubborn. Just tell him what it is and I'm sure Karel will run along." Shun said, noticing the sparks flying between Karel and I.

"It's some moss I picked up on the way back." I said, standing up, "I gotta go."

I guess my room is the best place to be after all.

Locking the door and setting a new password, I quickly sat at my work table and took out the moss, immediately turning on my desk lamp and starting diagnostics when I felt a familiar set of hands rubbing my back.

Oh Lord why me? Why did I have to date the only ninja in the den?

"Guess who?" Licca laughed, running her hands all over trying to find my ticklish spot.

"The only girl that can bypass any lock in the den?"

"Oh you changed the passcode? Wouldn't work, I was in here already." Licca said, wearing one of her "I just beat you and you know it" grins.

I swear... One of these days...

"What's that your fiddling with? It looks like... Oh no you didn't."

"I didn't what."

"You actually fought an Ouroboros? I thought you were just watching someone do it or something!" Licca cried, clearly distraught.

"I'm here don't worry, I wot do something over my head."

"Please Ragner, don't do anything stupid again..."

"I was with Lindow..."

Pressing a finger to my lips to hush me, Licca continued, "My father... Died in an accident. I don't want to lose you the same way Ragner."

"Alright I promise."

Giving me a short kiss in reply, Licca looked into my eyes as she said, "Thank you."

Standing up to get a better look at the moss, Licca immediately got right to business, "So, what do you plan to do with this moss?"

"It is capable of storing incredible amounts of energy, I was thinking about using it in an upgrade unit..."

Stopping when I noticed Licca was acting strangely, I couldn't help but ask, "Licca, what's wrong?"

"Ragner... About that Ouroboros core that was brought back..."

"Yeah what about it?"

"They made a God Arc out of it."

No freakin way, that thing was HUGE!

"So?" "It's a new-type God Arc, a search was done and a match was found."

"Wow, cool. Don't matches take longer to find?"

"Ragner..." Licca murmured, stepping backwards and sitting on the bed.

Distancing herself, broadcasting anxiety... No... It can't be...

"Ragner, the match is me."

So this is how the world ends.

-End of Chapter-

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